World Radio Day

World Radio Day (Le jour mondial de la radio) is an international day celebrated on 13 February each year. The day was designated by UNESCO on November 3, 2011, during its 36th conference.

Background
Following a request from the Spanish Radio Academy on September 20, 2010, Spain proposed that the UNESCO Executive Board include an agenda item on the proclamation of World Radio Day. UNESCO's Executive Board added the agenda item to its provisional agenda for the proclamation of a "World Radio Day" on September 29, 2011. Upon receiving favorable responses and official support from the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), the African Union of Broadcasting (AUB), the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Association of Broadcasting (IAB), the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA), the Organización de Telecomunicaciones Ibeoramericanas (OTI), BBC, URTI, Vatican Radio, etc, the proposal was approved.

The Board recommended it to them in 1946. The Board then further requested that UNESCO's Director-General bring the resolution to the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations so that World Radio Day could be endorsed by the General Assembly and celebrated by the whole system. The matter was subsequently treated by UNESCO's General Conference, which adopted the resolution in file 36 C/63. World Radio Day was thus unanimously proclaimed by all Member States of UNESCO in November 2011.

In December 2012, The General Assembly of the UN endorsed the proclamation of World Radio Day, which thereby became a day to be celebrated by all UN agencies, funds, and programs and their partners. File A/RES/67/124. At UNESCO, the consultation, proclamation, and celebrations were handled by Mirta Lourenco, Chief of the Sector for Media Development.

The First World Radio Day
In honor of the first World Radio Day in 2012, Lifeline Energy, Frontline SMS, SOAS Radio and Empowerhouse hosted a seminar in London. A variety of practitioners, academics and tool providers joined the School of Oriental and African Studies to explore ways in which radio reaches even the most remote and vulnerable communities. Speakers included Guy Berger (Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development at UNESCO), Dr. Chege Githiora (Chairman of the Centre of African Studies at SOAS), Birgitte Jallov (Empowerhouse/ Panos London), Amy O'Donnell (FrontlineSMS: Radio), Carlos Chirinos (SOAS Radio), and Linje Manyozo (LSE). The panel was moderated by Lucy Durán (SOAS, BBC Radio 3, Human Planet). At the University of Pisa in Italy, a public event was held on 13 February 2012 to commemorate World Radio Day. The event was organized by Italradio and the Faculty of Engineering and Telecommunication and focused on the cost and ease of use of radio as a source of information.

In 2012, in Barcelona, Spain, a public event organized by the College of Telecommunications Engineers of Catalunya (COETTC) was held on 21 February 2012 to commemorate World Radio Day. The event was organized with the help of the Government of Catalonia. The main event was a panel discussion entitled "For a more global and competitive radio". In Switzerland, the European Broadcasting Union organized a Digital Radio Week. This was a series of technical events starting on 13 February 2012, with the participation of the main radio standardization organizations: DRM Consortium, WorldDMB, RadioDNS. There was also a local digital radio transmission in DAB+ demonstrating the democratization of transmission for smaller structures, using CRC mmb Tools open software-defined radio tools.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) promotes the observance of World Radio Day on 13 February in collaboration with public service Broadcasting, Commercial Broadcasting & Community Broadcasting at the local and national levels. The World Radio Day Observation National Committee was established in Bangladesh for this purpose.

Topics

 * 2013: Radio in the first half of the 20th century
 * 2014: Gender equality in radio
 * 2015: Youth and radio
 * 2016: Radio in Times of Disaster and Emergency
 * 2017: The Radio Is You
 * 2018: Radio & Sports
 * 2019: Dialogue, tolerance and peace
 * 2020: Diversity
 * 2021: New World, New Radio
 * 2022: Radio and Trust
 * 2023: Radio & Peace
 * 2024: Radio: A Century of Informing, Entertaining and Educating