“Not only for us but even for presenters of entertainment programmes on radio, this could be torturous,” said trainer Prateek Bhandari during the closing.

“When there is a big gap in knowledge between the participants, the quality of the training is affected,” said Bharat Bhusal, another trainer.

Station heads present promised that this problem would not arise in future. Heads of all FM stations of mid-western and far-western regions were present during the closing ceremony. These included chairman of Radio Karnali Min Bahadur Shahi, chairman of Saipal FM Min Bahadur Singh, managing director of Ghoda Ghodi FM Dhruba Shah, station manager of Radio Bheri Narayan Koirala, station manager of Tulsipur FM Arjun Giri, chairman of Radio Bheri Awaj Tara Khanal and station manager of Bheri FM Yam Bahadur Dura.

At the closing ceremony, general secretary of Nepal Forum of Environment Journalists Bhupendra Basnet said that the training would prove to have been useful only if the participants used what they learned.

At the same programme, coordinator of Community Radio Support Centre Raghu Mainali said that it was the responsibility of journalists working at community radio stations to give something to their communities.

He reminded the participants of the training of their social responsibility and to think about the issues prevailing in the nation.

Coordinator Mainali also urged the journalists present to realise the power of the microphone and be cautious about what they say.

Given the context of the on-going violence in the region, he emphasised on the need of radio programmes to be more serious and effective.

Butwal: Realising the importance of radio journalism in establishing peace in the country, the foremost national priority, the Community Radio Support Centre of Nepal Forum of Environment Journalists has prepared a training manual to help define the role of radio journalists.

On the basis of the manual a week-long training programme was organised in Butwal of Rupandehi district from 22 to 27 February 2006.

Altogether 14 representatives from seven community radio stations of Palpa, Nawalparasi, and Rupandehi districts and one commercial radio station of Butwal in the western region and one community radio station of Makwanpur district of central region participated in the training.

At the inauguration of the programme, in which registar of the Rupandehi appellate court Dilli Raj Acharya was the chief guest, president of the Rupandehi unit of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists D. R. Ghimire, coordinator of Community Radio Support Centre Raghu Mainali, general secretary of Nepal Forum of Environment Journalists Bhupendra Basnet, station manager of the local Butwal F. M. Madhav Nepal and station manager of Tinau F. M. Ramesh Pandey spoke of the benefits of the training and the perspective the media should take in the on-going conflict. After an hour-and-half-long inauguration programme the training began.

Pokhara: Realising the importance of radio journalism in establishing peace in the country, the foremost national priority, the Community Radio Support Centre of Nepal Forum of Environment Journalists has prepared a training manual to help define the role of radio journalists.

A training programme based on the manual was organised in Pokhara and Gandruk of Kaski district from 11 to 31 May 2006.

A total of 17 representatives of 11 community radio stations from Palpa, Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Kaski, Banke, Surkhet, Makawanpur and Kailali districts and four commercial radio stations from Pokhara and Baglung towns participated in the training programme.

The training programme was divided into two parts. The first part was four days long and included theoretical topics like conflict and violence, its effects, violence and conflict in the context of Nepal and the role of radio journalists in it.

The second part of the training was three days long and participants were taken to the village of Gandruk, a day was. There the participants gathered news on the basis of what they had learned in the first part of the training.

Pokhara
The Community Radio Support Centre organised a week-long training programme on ‘Violent Conflict and Radio Programmes’ for the those working in community radio stations around the country. Ten community F. M. radio stations and four commercial F.M. stations were represented in the training.

After a four-day theoretical training in Pokahra, the participants were taken to a field tour to Gandruk of Kaski district where they reported on the direct impact of the conflict.