news & archives

11/05/2003 - 6:30 PM CST (Costa Rican time) - The Copy Exchange - "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers," states Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But that apparently does not apply to the United Nations' mandated University for Peace, which silenced the voice of Radio for Peace International today at approximately 4:00 PM CST, by cutting power to the station.

James Latham, in a cell phone conversation with this reporter just minutes ago, stated that the RFPI staff would not be leaving the station any time soon. In an earlier conversation Latham stated that if food were prevented from being brought into the station, the staff would be forced into going on a hunger strike. RFPI volunteers have been supplying food by bringing it with them from Ciudad Colon and crawling through a hole in the fence that surrounds the university land.

Tomorrow an attempt would be made to move station equipment out of the station and into a secure location - an action that could be blocked by the armed University for Peace guard and a large quantity of barbed wire.

11/04/03 4:00 PM CST (Costa Rican time) - The Copy Exchange - Today the University for Peace (UPaz) "strung up enough barbed wire across the entrance to round up a herd of Texas longhorns," stated RFPI station chief, Lames Latham, in a cell phone conversation with The Copy Exchange. Nobody is getting in or out of the station, but the RFPI staff has no intention of budging. "We are not moving until this [standoff] is over," stated Latham.

Local supporters in the San Jose area, after hearing that water supply was cut off yesterday, tossed 5 gallon buckets over the fence near the studios for collecting rain water. With heavy rain continuing on throughout the day, an ample amount of water was collected to sustain the RFPI staff for a good number of days.

Meanwhile legal action continues. Papers requesting intervention to force Upaz to cease its action, signed by the RFPI staff and others - including Rodrigo Carazo, founder of UPaz - will be filed at Costa Rica's highest court in the next few hours.

11/03/2003 08:00 PM CST and Costa Rican time - 0200 Tuesday UT - The Copy Exchange - The University for Peace (UPaz) took its first step toward forcing RFPI off UPaz land today by cutting off water and phone service to the station, reported Lames Latham in a phone conversation with The Copy Exchange on a cell phone line. Both Utilities, fed through the university property, and are subject to UPaz control, the water cut off at 11:30 CST and the phone cut off at noon.

But then came the rain - buckets of it. By placing a large trash barrel under the rain spout, and collecting rain water it every available wastebasket, some 70 gallons of water were collected, to provide several days worth of water for the undeterred RFPI crew.

UPaz also is now toughening its stance on allowing vehicles in and out of the station.

A court injunction will be filed in a Costa Rican court Tuesday by RFPI requesting a cease and desist order be levelled against UPaz. In addition, RFPI is pursuing legal action in Costa Rican and international courts to recover the value of the RFPI studios, for which UPaz has offered virtually nothing.

A letter sent to RFPI last week from a UPaz lawyer stated that UPaz had no need for the equipment, transmitters, and studios and that "You can take the building with you."

The University for Peace (UPaz) gave little ground to Radio for Peace International in negotiations that took place over the last few months over compensation to RFPI for their $200,000 facilities and for the cost of moving the station, RFPI station manager, James Latham, reported yesterday. UPaz would only set up an escrow account containing a tiny percentage of what is owed the station - money that RFPI cannot access. RFPI walked away for the talks empty handed, forced to relocate but penniless to do so.

UPaz officials stated that RFPI must vacate their facilities by October 31st or face legal action, though it is unclear what form that action might take, since Costa Rican law does not apply to international land, such as UPaz property.

Regardless, RFPI does plan to move and is determined to keep their dream alive. Land outside San Jose has been donated to RFPI, a deed being drawn up to transfer ownership to the station. From a newly established office in San Jose, capable of containing the studios, RFPI will be able to live stream their programming over the Internet during the three to six month period required to set up the transmitter and tower at the new location. Once the transmitter is established RFPI begin broadcasts again using a studio-to-transmitter link from the San Jose studio.

UPaz reportedly is planning to make use of the present RFPI facilities, for which they offered nothing in monetary consideration, for their own purposes.

RFPI - After all the gloom and crisis we have been dealing with here at RFPI, we felt the need to update you all with the focus firmly fixed on our normal, ongoing activities here at the station!!

We want to take the opportunity first of all to thank you all for your ongoing support at this crucial time, whether that is through donations for our legal defense fund or through your continuing efforts to keep awareness levels high about the crisis here at RFPI within the United Nations and in your local media. We also want to thank you all for your patience in this long wait for a public statement from us about the talks we are engaged in with the University for Peace regarding how and when we are to move from our premises on the campus. As you are all aware by now, we agreed to the University request not to make any public statements until the talks were over on 31st October in order to demonstrate good faith. We expect to be able to make a statement soon regarding the current situation, at which time, we may need to call on you again for your invaluable help in awareness raising.

We should never forget that Radio For Peace International has continued on throughout this crisis with its normal activities, broadcasting 24 hours a day across all time zones, delivering the Peace Journalism course and planning new projects and events. RFPI is so much more than the current crisis.

We enjoyed a very busy 16th birthday celebration last month, appropriately coinciding with International World Peace Day, with a packed station full of supporters. James Latham and the rest of the staff gave a speech and the day was extremely positive, with a clear focus on the future of the radio station, despite all the recent and ongoing difficulties.

PEACE JOURNALISM TRAINING

Located at the RFPI studios, the Institute for Progressive Communications (IPC) continues to break new ground in training journalists from around the world in Peace Journalism. Students completed a Peace Journalism and Progressive Media Through Radio course on September 21, and another began on September 29.

During the September course, students produced two independent radio documentaries. One program explored the life of children living in the streets in Costa Rica and the non-profit agencies who work on their behalf, and the other looked at the impact of Western food products and fast food lifestyle on the Costa Rican diet. Both programs have been aired on RFPI.

The next IPC course begins on January 5, 2003. Courses continue throughout 2004.

NEW PROGRAMMING

RFPI continues to rebuild our Spanish language department, delivering a unique service of independently produced programs from Latin American to the world community. The first of our Spanish language programming is People Without Borders or Pueblos Sin Fronteras. People Without Borders is a daily bi-lingual news program, bringing listeners progressive world news in Spanish with a special focus on Latin America. Listen for People Without Borders Tuesday through Friday, 18.30 UTC.

Continue to tune in to our diverse and dynamic 24 hour programming that includes Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, Counterspin, and Making Contact, as well as original programming produced by RFPI. A complete schedule of our programming is available at www.rfpi.org.

VOLUNTEERS

RFPI welcomed two new volunteers last month to the team, Ankie Kampmeyer and Jennifer Liss. With a background in Communications, Ankie will be volunteering with RFPI for three months. Ankie joins RFPI from Hamburg, Germany. Jennifer Liss, from San Francisco, California, brings her experience in non-profit administration and print and electronic media to RFPI for the coming two months. Edy, from Brazil, has also been volunteering for the last few months at RFPI providing computer support. His excellent computer skills rescued our computer network from an almost total collapse back to health.

SUPPORT

Never before has there been a time when RFPI's unique voice on short wave was so needed, yet funding so scarce. Your contributions have kept RFPI on the air for 16 years. Opposition to organizations such as RFPI and attempts to silence them have often relied on scarcity of funding to do the job for them. We cannot stress to you enough what a crucial difference your donations make to RFPI's survival. The dispute with the University has affected RFPI's grant-worthiness due to the uncertainty that has been generated. For this reason, we need your contributions more than ever.

Please visit Radio For Peace International

09/11/2003 - The Copy Exchange - If you have noticed that RFPI's signal on 7445 is better recently, there's a reason. The station's General Manager, James Latham, was able to increase the transmitter power from 15 kilowatts to 30 kilowatts, starting at 0300 UT Thursday this week.

The problem was the lack of a capacitor connected between the transmitter and the antenna, which could block 8 kilovolts of Direct Current applied to the final transmitter tube from reaching the antenna, while allowing the Radio Frequency signal to pass through.

The appropriate industrial-strength capacitor had to be ordered in the US and brought to Costa Rica by courier, a process that took several weeks.

The blocking capacitor that had been in use for a year, allowing full power operation, burned out in the third week of August. Various temporary measures were attempted. One capacitor that was tried "melted like a marshmallow," according to Latham. Finally, a capacitor was located that would allow RFPI to broadcast at the 15 kilowatt level, and that had been in place since the first week in September.

Now listeners can enjoy the strong RFPI signal that the station has produced in the past, and they can rest assured the same problem will not occur again soon - RFPI now has a spare capacitor.

August 17, 2003 - Exclusive to The Copy Exchange - In a meeting held on the University for Peace (UPaz) campus on August 11th between UPaz and RFPI officials, an agreement was made to hold talks in the coming months regarding RFPI's fate. The deadline for reaching agreement was set at October 31, 2003, and no statements are to be made to the public by either side regarding these talks until after that deadline.

In the past RFPI management has expressed a concern that a forced relocation could run into millions of dollars. It is unclear how much UPaz would offer in compensation for existing structures, lost air time, and other costs associated with the move. RFPI would be required to purchase land, construct studios, transmission facilities and towers, as well as deal with the red tape of Costa Rican licensing procedures.

Station staff told The Copy Exchange that of late UPaz guards at the RFPI gate have been allowing some vehicles through the gate to park next to the studio, avoiding the staff humiliation of climbing through the locked gate. Guards, who no longer carry firearms and are generally business-like but cooperative, reportedly are not present at the gate at all times to allow vehicles in. The station gate was chained and locked by UPaz on July 21st when the action against the station was initiated.

Station staff also reported that the lockdown has drastically reduced enrollment in the RFPI-run Institute for Progressive Communications (IPC) courses, causing a shortfall in an important income source. The station must now support itself almost entirely on listener and supporter contributions.

The small RFPI staff speak of exhaustion from working overtime. Members must be at the studio 24 hours a day to insure proper station operation and prevent damage from occurring.