University Radio in Maan District in Southern Jordan is one of four community radio stations working with IMS. Screenshot: Henrik Grunnet/IMS

Residents in Southern Jordan and other governorates outside the capital Amman have little or no local media to provide them with news and information. A rise in the number of community-based radio stations is changing this  

As part of a new initiative to Support media in Jordan, International Media Support (IMS) is working with local Jordanian community radios to improve the quality of their productions and outreach. 

IMS has visited community radio stations around Jordan. Watch the video here.

IMS will provide five radio stations with technical support , journalistic skills training, development of audience-specific radio formats and upgrading of their equipment and web-activities as an additional way to engage listeners. Also, a cooperation between Danish and Jordanian radio stations has been set up to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience.

Restrictive licensing practices

In 2002, Jordan liberalised its airwaves and since then, 26 independent radio stations have been granted licenses. Only seven stations broadcast news and political programmes while the remainder mostly do entertainment, music and social programmes. It is fifty per cent more expensive to obtain a license for news broadcasting than for entertainment which has been explained by the fact that entertainment generates more advertisements and thereby revenue than news programmes. However, some within the Jordanian media sector would describe the varied  pricing of licenses as a means to restrict media freedom.

Among some of the more prominent community radio stations are al-Balad (Amman based, hosted by amman.net), Farah an-Nas (Amman based), Saut al-Janub (Ma'an, University based), Saut al-Kerak (Kerak, University based) and the university-based Yarmouk radio station in Irbid.

Women in radio production

A main component of IMS’ cooperation with Jordanian community radio stations is to involve women and young people from lower- and middle-income areas in media training and in the production of radio. The aim is not only to capture an important and marginalised audience in areas outside Amman, but also to address the significant gender gap that exists in Jordan. Women and young people, as well as disabled persons, will be trained in radio production, and in how to use local community radios to discuss issues of concern to women and youth in general. The target is for at least 50 per cent of the stories to be produced by women.

Danish-Jordanian radio partnerships

The Association of Danish University Radios (involving five university stations) is one of the Danish partners working with Jordanian community radio stations to share experience and knowledge. The partnering of Jordanian and Danish radio stations will take place in the form of mutual visits and sharing of programme content. 

Read more about IMS' work with media in the Arab region here.