Media4Diversity

Programme Description:

Founded in 2006 Radio Salaam Shalom is a UK based Internet broadcaster. It is the United Kingdom’s first combined Muslim-Jewish broadcast project, operating an Internet radio station and making regular Jewish – Muslim podcasts to download.

The project focuses on promoting inclusion, intercultural awareness and mutually empowering dialogue. The founders of Radio Salaam Shalom felt that there wasn’t a media outlet for the ‘moderate majority’ and no place that people could go to discover or promote what these communities share, rather than what divides them. As a community, non-profit organisation Radio Salaam Shalom relies on the community to volunteer their time to keep the project up and running.

Radio Salaam Shalom promotes diversity amongst its volunteers by encouraging women and children to take part in its activities. Training is given to both groups so that they can produce or present their own programmes, giving them control of the way they’re seen and portrayed. Discussions on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity are welcomed for potential inclusion as part of the issues addressed in the radio’s programming. A number of non-Jewish and non-Muslim volunteers have joined the project to learn more about the different communities sharing their city.

Volunteers are regularly asked to give presentations or speeches at events promoting diversity across the UK and Europe. They are also involved in public sector and NGO stakeholder forums. This access to policy makers has given a new voice to two communities that continue to face discrimination in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world.

Challenge:

Increasing the number of volunteers able to work during regular employment hours.

Solution:

Find volunteers from the retired population in order to increase the number of people available to assist during the working day rather than just after hours.

Impact and Success Stories:

• Radio Salaam Shalom has seen a rise in requests for their involvement/support from other initiatives across the United Kingdom and Europe.
• The project has attracted a large amount of press coverage and has been featured on national and international radio and television.
• Bristol, where Radio Salaam Shalom is based, was the only city to be included in the European Regional Champion under the European Union’s intercultural dialogue strand.

Quotes:

“It has provided them (the media) with a different sense of how the cultures interact, a positive addition to the usual violence-driven narrative so common in world media.” Kyl Hannon, Station Manager

“It enables a new group of articulate people from the Jewish and Muslim communities to represent their ethnic, faith and cultural communities.” Kyle Hannon, Station Manager