Saving endangered languages through public service broadcasting (2)

By Levi Obijiofor

Friday, 11 November 2011

In the first part of this article published on 1 July 2011 (see “Saving endangered languages through public service broadcasting”), I examined how public service broadcasting is being used to save endangered languages in South Africa and Canada. The article was a synopsis of a study commissioned by UNESCO in 2010 which required me to investigate public service broadcasting and language development in five countries. The five countries covered in the study were South Africa, Canada, India, Jamaica and Lebanon. The final report was submitted to UNESCO in January this year.

For over three days in May/June 2011, UNESCO hosted a meeting at its Paris headquarters in which a group of experts reflected on and examined how best to save endangered languages through public service broadcasting. The theme of the meeting was “Towards UNESCO guidelines on language policies: A tool for language assessment and planning”. More than 50 linguists, communication scholars and specialists in related disciplines attended the meeting.

Since the publication of the first part of the article in July, my attention has been distracted by a number of news events that prevented a follow up. Today, I focus on the second part of the report which analyses public service broadcasting and language development in India and Jamaica. I have included in this part some recommendations. The final part of the report, comprising mostly of suggestions, will be published as and when time and events permit. 

There are two principal public service broadcasters in India. They are Doordashan and All India Radio (AIR). Statistics published by the All India Radio show that the broadcaster has 232 broadcasting centres, including domestic and external services. Its domestic services broadcast in 24 languages and 146 dialects while the external arm broadcasts in 27 languages. The broadcaster produces on a daily basis more than 500 news bulletins in 82 languages. These are broadcast from its head office in New Delhi as well as from 44 regional services. However, Doordarshan broadcasts from 24 regional news services at three levels, namely national, regional and local.

India presents an interesting scenario because it has a large number of languages. Usha Manchanda reports that India is not only the second most populous country in the world, its population is also diverse in terms of the composition of religious groups, social classes and language groups. According to Census of India 2001, India has 22 officially recognised languages and a large number of dialects, although Hindi is a widely spoken language. This situation makes public service broadcasting an important instrument for the promotion of minority languages in India.

In India, the only policy initiative that mandates the two public service broadcasters to promote minority or lesser-used languages in their programming is the Prasar Bharati Act 1990. However, there is no mechanism in this Act to ensure that Doordashan and AIR use, as a matter of policy, minority languages in their programming. There is also no clause in the Prasar Bharati Act 1990 that stipulates how the broadcasters would be sanctioned if they failed to uphold their public service obligations in regard to minority language promotion and development.

The Prasar Bharati Act 1990 sets out the basis for the recognition and development of diverse languages in the country. The Act states quite categorically that the Prasar Bharati Board should ensure that the two public broadcasters should meet some obligations such as “providing adequate coverage to the diverse cultures and languages of the various regions of the country by broadcasting appropriate programmes; providing suitable programmes keeping in view the special needs of the minorities and tribal communities; promoting national integration by broadcasting in a manner that facilitates communication in the languages of India; and facilitating the distribution of regional broadcasting services in every State in the languages of that State” (Prasar Bharati Act 1990). The extent to which these goals have been met or are being implemented is contested.

In Jamaica, public service broadcasting is regarded as a tentative and emerging broadcast sector and this is seen in terms of inadequate funds provided to the public broadcaster – the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) -- and the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC), now mainly self-sustaining. There is no specific mandate or constitutional clause that requires the PBCJ to reflect lesser-used languages in its programming. This means the use of public service broadcasting for language development is not yet seen as a priority in Jamaica. For many years, public service broadcasting in Jamaica was hampered by a range of problems such as underfunding, importation of foreign programmes, lack of quality programmes, and political interference.

This is understandable because, following its independence in 1962, Jamaica was faced with a multitude of problems not least of which is a broadcast industry that relied essentially on imported programmes. Thus, in fashioning its public service broadcasting policy, Jamaica is confronted with the problem of how to promote and sustain its cultural identity through television programming. The impact of imported television programmes on the culture and people of the Caribbean is at the heart of the campaign to establish public service broadcasting in Jamaica. Thus, the institutionalisation of public service broadcasting is important to Jamaica because it will serve a variety of local cultural, economic, social and political interests. In particular, it will help to develop local performing artistes and local cultural programmes.

The question about how the Jamaican public service broadcaster enables linguistic communities to be informed, educated and entertained shows there are no clear distinctions among linguistic communities in the country, even though the PBCJ covers folk forms such as poetry and drama that involve use of the local language. There are some initiatives to expose and recognise the Jamaican language through broadcasting. One such scheme is the National Festival Movement. There are also other initiatives, originating mainly from the University of the West Indies, around recognition and respect for Jamaican, an extensively used combination of English, West African linguistic forms and Spanish.

In terms of recommendations aimed to initiate or advance the use of public service broadcasting for the development of minority languages in different countries, one important element is the establishment of an effective public service broadcaster (radio and television) that caters for the diverse needs of the citizens in any country in which such a service is either non-existent or is of limited use.

Public service broadcasters fulfil certain obligations to citizens such as provision of universal access, cultural preservation, promotion of national unity, democratisation of information and civic deliberation by citizens. The presence of public service broadcasters will offer a level playing field that provides everyone -- the rich and the poor, majorities and minorities, women and men, the elderly and the young -- equal access to broadcasting services.

The establishment of a public service broadcaster should be backed up by clear policy guidelines that mandate the broadcaster to fulfil a number of obligations, including the promotion and development of minority languages through a range of programmes. As discussed in the first part of this essay published in July, South Africa and Canada serve as good case studies of countries in which public service broadcasters are mandated through policy to promote and develop officially recognised languages as well as other minority languages. However, it is not enough to outline policy goals relating to public service broadcasting and language development. Clear, specific and achievable goals must be set, including how the goals should be assessed.

It is vital for each country to establish an official regulator of all forms of broadcasting. The key responsibility of this regulator is to ensure that broadcasting organisations meet certain mandates, such as an obligation to broadcast in minority languages for a specified number of hours per week during peak hours. Such broadcasts should not be limited to language programs but must also be reflected in news and current affairs programming, documentaries, educational broadcasts (especially educational programmes targeted at pre-school age children, as well as primary and secondary school children). Other programmes through which minority languages should be promoted include sports and other forms of entertainment (e.g. drama, soap operas, etc.).

To facilitate effective use of public service broadcasting for language development, one of the conditions for the issuance of broadcast licences must be that licence holders should be required to broadcast in minority languages for a specified number of hours per week during peak and off-peak hours.

In multiethnic and multilingual countries such as India, South Africa and Jamaica, a national language policy should be used to outline the official languages of communication in the public and private domains. Such a policy should recognise minority languages. It should map official channels (such as public service broadcast institutions) through which the minority languages should be promoted and developed. The development, preservation and maintenance of minority languages should be one of the key objectives of a national language policy.

For language policy initiatives to be effective, as in the case of South Africa, it may be necessary to consider whether there needs to be some kind of legal framework or constitutional clause that identifies officially recognised languages, as well as the lesser-used languages. The key question to be considered here is whether a legal framework is required to specify how minority or lesser-used languages should be supported and maintained through various public channels.

In essence, policy frameworks for public service broadcasting might be more effective if they have legal backing or, in some countries’ situations, constitutional backing and mandate. South Africa serves as an example of a country in which the public service broadcaster (SABC) is mandated in the constitution to promote 11 officially recognised languages.