MONROVIA, Montserrado – River Gee’s second district representative, Francis Dopoh, has written to ask the House of Representatives for allotment to be made for community radio stations in the 2019 national budget.

Dopoh stated in his communication that the quality and frequency of information provided in various local languages in the counties drum up interest among citizens in the governance of the state.

“Speaker and distinguished colleagues, it will please you to know that the level of consciousness today in our country can be largely attributed to information dissemination by our various community radio stations in our country,” he wrote.

The lawmakers said it would be a disservice to the people they represent if the operations of community radio stations are not subsidized, because of how impactful their work is on society. He believes that a strong democracy depends on the quality of its information, as it also impacts the economy.

He said while the government directly funds the state broadcaster, ELBC Radio, through the Information Ministry’s budget, there was a need to include an allocation for community radio stations as a line item in the upcoming budget that would be supervised by the Liberia News Agency and the Association of Liberia Community Radios.

After debating the communication, the House of Representatives voted to send the communication to the Committee on Broadcast to look into the merits and report back after the July 26 Independence Daybreak.

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah