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Legislation, development and empowerment of women -- simply rights of citizens in a democracy -- are reasons enough to make community radio important. These are reasons that also make this media pertinent to India. While there are ample illustrations from many countries of the ways in which community radio enhances the functioning of democracies, the media still remains vexed by cumbersome government procedures in India.

The current situation confronting community radio in the country is the focus of the UNDP-run website: www.communityradionetwork.org The section, 'Community radio, the Indian experience,' details information on community radio initiatives, while the section, 'How to set up a community radio station' carries guidelines given by the Union ninistry of information and broadcasting. The website also provides a glimpse of community radio legislations from countries such as Australia, South Africa, Canada and Ireland, where community radio has been active for a while. These are available in the section 'Advocacy initiatives for legislation' as well as in the section 'Articles and white papers'.

Recently, the Indian Government has opened up campus radio broadcasting. Questions on the procedure to be followed and equipment required have been answered on the website. Articles by media professionals analyse the future of community radio in India . But as the organisers of the website note, "Questions need to be answered, but a lot more need to be raised."

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