Radio Študent
MISSION OF RADIO ŠTUDENT - STRIVE FOR INCLUSION, DIVERSITY AND DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY
Based in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, Radio Študent was established in 1969 with a mission to give voice to students and under-represented social groups. It is one of Europe's oldest and strongest non-commercial, alternative urban community radio stations with high-quality non-commercial programming 24 hours per day. Radio Študent is broadcast on 89.3 MHz (500 W) UKV stereo, covering Ljubljana and its surroundings (500,000 potential listeners), via internet stream since 6th of May 1998 and via DAB+ (covering 70% of Slovenia with a total of 2 mio inhabitants, since 2018).
Radio Študent is a staunch defender of its mission and therefore upholds the highest professional and ethical journalistic standards. It is an educational institution, providing a free yearly training programme for young journalists, speakers and technicians based on our experience in media production. It strives to promote the values and importance of independent professional journalism upon new generations and has over 200 active journalists in fields of politics, music, culture, science and education, fostering a culture of critique, in-depth research and reporting, journalistic integrity, credibility and pluralism of opinions. RŠ is the only bigger media in Slovenia providing joint space for minorities and various other social, interest groups and communities.
Due to the variety and range of his contributors, many innovative cultural, political and social initiatives have sprung from the activities of Radio Študent. RŠ programming policy fuses community radio and public service concepts. From its earliest days the station has promoted civil society initiatives, particularly in connection with urban lifestyles, freedom of speech, independent thought, libertarian values, cultural diversity, social critique, tolerance, social solidarity and human rights.
One of its core missions has always been providing media space to various social groups, minorities and marginalized communities. Rather than speaking on behalf of these groups, RŠ provides the editorial and technical support needed for them to speak for themselves. This mission has resulted in dedicated radio programing by and for members of said groups:
- music subcultures (music sets prepared by over 60 selectors; broadcasts on neglected music genres in mainstream radios – metal, hard-core, techno, reggae & rap, blues, jazz, ethno, noise etc.; music interviews and reviews),
- alternative culture (non-institutional art production in fields of visual art, new media, theatre, film, literature, architecture; diverse theoretical essays; radio drama; culture news and reviews),
- ethnic minorities (special broadcasts produced by radio-makers born abroad: Croatian, Serbian, African, Roma community; refugees and migrants)
-social minorities and alternative socio-political groups (special broadcasts produced by feminist activists, stigmatized communities, homeless people, LGBTIQ, anarchists, local communities from different regions).
RŠ strives to connect and engage these communities not only amongst themselves but also with the wider society by organising various live and open access public events (concerts, music festivals, panels, poetry readings, art performances, exhibitions) to provide a platform for discussion and chance to highlight their issues and target relevant stakeholders (local authorities, politicians, NGOs).
Unlike mainstream media in Slovenia, RŠ also provides open media platform formats with great attention to plurality of opinions and broader grassroots level communities inclusion like the following examples:
- “Info Kolpa” civil initiative - activist group defending the rights of migrants on the Balkan route, uncovering systemic violations and abuse on the Slovenian-Croatian border, with practice of denying asylum requests to migrants by Slovenian police - specific airing on our open platform “Ni še gotovo!” / “It is not over yet!”,
- “Ni še gotovo!” (https://radiostudent.si/druzba/ni-se-gotovo) was established in time of mayor political unrest in 2013 for providing open space for voices of diverse communities to be heard either by reading of public letters, interviews or commentary,
- In time of COVID-19 we sensed the need for a similar crisis-dedicated platform in order to ease the tension of insecurity, vocalize distress and feel connected with others, so “Krizni štab RŠ” / “RŠ Crisis Headquarters” was opened for diverse communities ranging from cultural workers, students, marginalized groups, academic professors, labor union representatives, scientists, international reporters etc. (https://radiostudent.si/druzba/krizni-stab-rs).
Support to democracy, solidarity and cooperation is also shown on EU level by the following examples:
- awareness-raising campaign “Respect Words!” combating media hate speech against migrants and religious minorities by joining 8 EU partners, concluded by creation of media reporting Ethical code (www.respectwords.org/en/ethical-code/).
- communication of European Parliament issues, values and practice in cooperation with steady partner Radio Student Zagreb - DEEP2 https://radiostudent.si/deep/dve/prispevki
- exposure and reporting on often neglected alternative music scene - network Radio Muse (www.radiomuse.eu).
Company Overview
RADIO STUDENT is an independent medium. At Radio Student there are only a small number of full-time employees, which are joined by over 200 regular contributors: journalists, art and music critics, D.J.s, announcers, technicians etc. The majority of them are students and young people, and a number of them are highly respected intellectuals, journalists, artists and university lecturers.
Radio Student has its own record label ZARS (http://zalozba.radiostudent.si/) and produces two annual music festivals, TRESK (www.tresk.si) in the spring and KLUBSKI MARATON (http://www.radiostudent.si/klubskimaraton/) in autumn.
We are also open for cooperation in the diverse field of contemporary investigative art practices through our Open radio art theory investigative platform RADAR (http://radiostudent.si/radar/) and we are a member of international radio art network Radia (http://www.radia.fm/).
One of Europe's oldest and strongest independent and non-commercial urban radio stations. Forever young. LISTEN NOW!: http://kruljo.radiostudent.si:8000/ehiq
