These days, terms such as ''freedom of speech'' and ''democratic media'' increasingly appear as empty statements, disconnected from real life or personal experience. Worse, they are shrieked from powerful places within society.

It was refreshing then to read Bec Zajac's article ''The freedom to speak'' in The Sunday Age and the profile it provided of Eritrean Voices. Here was Melbourne's Eritrean community enjoying a media freedom absent in their home country.

However, an essential element, not necessarily driven home in the article, is the type of radio Eritrean Voices broadcasts on.

The show goes to air on 3CR community radio - locally on 855AM and globally on 3cr.org.au. This is not just any type of radio: the station's structure and purpose are central in enabling precisely the type of ''freedom to speak'' Eritrean Voices enjoys.

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3CR has held a community radio licence since 1976. It is community-owned and run, and is not for profit. It's also volunteer-driven, democratically governed and exists with the clear intention of providing training, space and support to communities habitually ignored in the mainstream media.

Because of these factors, the Eritrean community can create a radio broadcast that allows for news and information specifically relevant to it.

This doesn't mean every community radio station around the country is actively engaged with pursuing the ''freedom to speak'' and facilitating programs such as Eritrean Voices.

Unfortunately, such examples across the hundreds of community radio stations in Australia are few and far between. However, 3CR boasts many, including Voice of West Papua, Chin Radio and Tamil Voice.

3CR programming features people and issues that are absent from mainstream radio - homeless people, people with disabilities, refugees, Aboriginal activists, the list goes on. Not as guests, but as producers and presenters of their own radio shows.

Continued here:

Community radio is the true voice of the people