Media development organisations
There are two organisations that seek to foster and defend media communication in El Salvador, especially for radio and TV: the Salvadoran Radio Broadcasters (ASDER in Spanish) in the commercial sector and the Association of Radio and Participative Programmes from El Salvador (ARPAS in Spanish) in the community sector.
Taking into consideration the development and concentration of media in oligopolies and the disproportionate distribution of radio and TV frequencies, ASDER is the organisation that congregates more than 90 percent of commercial media. ARPAS has only one radio frequency with national coverage (92.1 FM), where 22 broadcast stations prioritise topics related to community and social organisation interests in the country. They not only provide content and radio programmes but also recording and broadcasting equipment as well as training services in topics related with radio programming and broadcasting. Their audience is composed mainly of people who want to be up to date with current events in El Salvador, especially those related with human rights and politics. It has a reputation of giving voice to communitarian radios and for being a trusted source of information about social issues and corruption at the different levels of government.
In the same way, there are two organisations from the civil society that include objectives related to the promotion of media communications from the third sector among their work: Comunicándonos Foundation (Communication Foundation for Development), a national organisation that has promoted and accompanied the emergence and creation of radio and TV stations, as well as the digital broadcasting organisation Digital Diary VOCES. Specifically, both provide support in topics related to communitarian radio broadcasting, democratisation of access to the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and communication for development.
At an international level there is the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC in Spanish), which seeks to promote, protect and develop media communication organisations from the third sector. This organisation operates with a strong articulation network in the Central American region, where it interacts with and coordinates more than 150 radio stations.