World Radio day was celebrated this year on Monday, the 13th of February bearing the theme “radio and peace”. This year’s own makes it the 12th edition.

Lesotho joined the world in commemoration of this day under the theme “Radio Catalyst For People’s Lives”. The event was held in Maseru on Monday.

The minister of information, Communication, Science, Technology, and Innovation, Ms. Nthati Morosi spoke at the event. While speaking, she pointed out that radio, like other media platforms, provides three traditional functions: information provision, education, and entertainment. She also added that its additional function is making the citizens make informed decisions about their lives.

She went on to emphasize that through the information provision, radio enlightens citizens about national issues, bringing policy and economic development issues to society’s attention for their interpretation, analysis, and digestion which contributes to their making informed decisions. She noted that the commemoration came at an opportune time when the radio is acknowledged across the world as a medium of information exchange.

The role of radio in agenda-setting cannot be overemphasized. It puts issues into the public domain by order of their importance, thereby influencing society to pay more attention to some more important issues.

The UNESCO Acting Secretary-General also spoke at this event. She talked about how UNESCO supports different sectors, including the communication sector because they work together with relevant ministries. In the same vein, she urged stakeholders to work collaboratively to grow their industry, while saying that radio is easily accessible and a widespread media.

The commemoration was also done in dialogue discussions where radio veterans shared knowledge with the young radio personalities and discussed factors affecting radio and solutions. The organizer of this event was MISA.