With funding support from the European Union, UNESCO representative in Jordan and the European Union ambassador attended the opening of the new radio Al Balad studios in Amman last Sunday.

As part of the “Support to Media in Jordan” (STMJ) project, several local radios including radio Al Balad were provided with new studio equipment. The EU provided the new equipment as part of an overall 1.5-million-euro contribution, designed to improve the ability of beneficiaries to provide high quality media content and train the next generation of media leaders. The equipment is provided in conjunction with an extensive capacity development program implemented by UNESCO for each institution.

Highlighting the strong partnership with the European Union, UNESCO representative to Jordan,  Costanza Farina shared the international organisations support to free expression. “By supporting institutions to achieve full freedom of press and free flow of information, we are collectively contributing to the realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development and to the empowerment of citizens”.

Etaf Roudan director of Radio al Balad said that the new equipment will help improve the efforts to reach a wide and diverse audience. “We can now reach more people with higher audio quality thanks to the new equipment from UNESCO.”

The Norwegian government and Universal company also contributed to the new studios.

From 2014- 2018, the STMJ project worked to support Jordan’s efforts in advancing Jordanian media to further increase its freedom, independence and professionalism. The EU has generously funded these efforts, and has played an active role in collaborating with UNESCO to strengthen an enabling regulatory and institutional environment and enhance the capacity for an independent, quality based media sector in Jordan serving the entire population.

Mohamed Shank talks about new equipment:

Studio under construction march\2018