Radio para la paz: la participación ciudadana en las emisoras de paz de Colombia

Abstract

Colombia’s "peace radio stations" represent a *sui generis* experience (Reyes, Gómez, and Torres, 2024) resulting from the Final Peace Agreement for Ending the Conflict and Building a Stable and Lasting Peace (hereinafter the Final Peace Agreement), signed between the national government and the former guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People's Army (hereinafter FARC-EP). In section 6.5 of the Final Peace Agreement—which addresses dissemination and communication mechanisms—the Colombian State committed to establishing 20 FM radio stations in territories heavily affected by the armed conflict; this task was assigned to RTVC Public Media System. The Final Peace Agreement also included a commitment to conduct a technical training program in radio production in the years following the stations' launch. This training was aimed at representatives of victims' organizations, representatives of peace signatories (via ECOMUN—Social Economies of the Common), and representatives of community organizations in each of the respective territories. Although the text did not explicitly state the reasons for this commitment, it can be inferred that the underlying intent was to foster initiatives that would enable the eventual involvement of social and community sectors in the peace stations' radio production processes. Against this backdrop, in 2020, RTVC Public Media System and the *Consejo de Redacción* Association developed the training project "Waves of Peace: Radio for All Voices from the Regions" (*Ondas de paz: radio para todas las voces de las regiones*). Beyond the provisions of the Final Peace Agreement, the training work was grounded in the recognition that the essential role of peace radio stations lies in rebuilding the social fabric in territories ravaged by multiple forms of violence—a process for which citizen participation is indispensable: “…the goal now is to open the microphones and foster an environment where public-interest stations—such as peace radio stations—serve as… a space for connection and construction that brings together diverse voices…” (Consejo de Redacción, 2020). The outcome also took the form of a manual structured in two sections: the first offers pedagogical tools for radio production from the perspective of public, peace-oriented journalism, as well as insights into radio storytelling and the role of sound; the second documents the experiences and community engagement associated with each of the peace radio stations. A third outcome—which serves as the unit of analysis for this article—consists of thirty radio pieces created and produced by participants in the training sessions held across the seven territories. Thus, the article presents the findings from the systematization and analysis of the radio content generated through the training program *A Radio for Peace: Pedagogical Tools for the Production and Creation of Radio Content*.