BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.


BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. For many news organizations, the struggle for journalistic objectivity is a matter of subtle tinkering --adjusting a slight bias this way or that. But for Radio Victoria, a station born in rebel territory in rural El Salvador during that country's civil war, politics are never subtle. Sharon Lerner reports.
[CHICKEN SOUNDS, RADIO PLAYING, PEOPLE TALKING]


SHARON LERNER: Joche and Lola Lieva and their five children have no television, no phone, no running water and iffy electricity. The family does have a radio, though, which sits in their open air kitchen surrounded by chickens. And in Santa Marta, a small village of subsistence farmers in the northern mountains of El Salvador, that makes them lucky. The Lieva's favorite station is Radio Victoria.
[RADIO VICTORIA STATION ID-- THEN MUSIC]
[JOCHE SPEAKING IN SPANISH, THEN TRANSLATION]


JOCHE LIEVA: For me, it's very useful, because I like listening to the news. It's where you can get an idea of developments at the local and provincial level.


SHARON LERNER: When it first began ten years ago, Radio Victoria was broadcast out of a mud brick home right here in Santa Marta. El Salvador's brutal civil war had just ended, but the country was still deeply divided with the leftist FMLN pitted against the right-wing Arena party. Santa Marta had been settled just a few years earlier by FMLN fighters like Joche who were returning from refugee camps in Honduras.

Christina Star, who is from Vermont, helped found the community station which is in the county of Victoria.


CHRISTINA STAR: The radio was not started specifically to be an FMLN radio, but it's always -- you know, in the beginning it was looked at-- Victoria only saw Santa Marta as being a guerilla place. You know, so I the radio came from Santa Marta, obviously it was a guerilla radio.


SHARON LERNER: Within a year the station moved to a better building in the county seat, but it's proven easier to physically relocate the station than to change perceptions of its politics. In 1994, during the first elections after the El Salvadoran peace accords, some on the right feared that Radio Victoria and other community stations would use their frequencies to promote the left's FMLN candidates.


CHRISTINA STAR: So the president of the telecommunication company who just also at that time [LAUGHS] happened to be the president of the right wing Arena party, in December of 1995 sent out a--order to the national civilian police to raid our radios and take our equipment.


SHARON LERNER: The local police did remove the station's transmitter, and Radio Victoria went off the air for weeks until the country's Supreme Court declared the seizure unconstitutional. After it went back on the air, the station decided to be less partisan in order to broaden its audience. Now Radio Victoria runs paid ads and editorials from candidates from all parties. It no longer allows the FMLN to hold local chapter meetings in its offices. And the station also focuses on stories of local interest.

Guillermo Erasmo Chavez is coordinator of the news department.
[GUILLERMO SPEAKING SPANISH, THEN TRANSLATION]


GUILLERMO ERASMO CHAVEZ: During Hurricane Mitch there were serious problems. For example the farmers of basic grains lost their entire crop. We did a few campaigns here telling people that if they had beans to donate them to people who didn't have them, and people from other villages that had produced a lot brought big quantities to those who had nothing.


SHARON LERNER: Perhaps what endears Radio Victoria most to its listeners are the personal notices or avisos it airs daily. In an area with few telephones, avisos are a critical means of communication.
[AVISO IN SPANISH]

In this aviso, a man wearing the cowboy hat and machete typical of local farmers has come into the station to announce a meeting that will take place in a few hours. As for the location, he says only Bonafacio's house in Santa Marta, assuming listeners will know where that is. Other avisos announce deaths in the community or that Jose is heading down the hill with a truck soon and could Juan please meet him with a mule.

For some, the purchase of El Salvador's 24 local community stations -- of which Radio Victoria is one -- is to give voice to poor locals who would not otherwise be heard. Twenty-three year old Manuel Navarette has worked at Radio Victoria since he was 16 and now hosts a weekly popular music program, Canto a la Vida.
[MANUEL'S PROGRAM ID FROM CANTO A LA VIDA]
[MANUEL NAVARETTE SPEAKING SPANISH, TRANSLATION]


MANUEL NAVARETTE: These are stations that differ from government stations which are on the other side of the sector, the right. They say whatever is most convenient to them. They say things like the country doesn't have any problems. Community radio tries to show the other face of the coin, trying to talk about the realities that the country faces, the great problems before us.


SHARON LERNER: On a recent hot Sunday afternoon, a shirtless Navarette sat in Radio Victoria's broadcasting booth wrapping up the latest segment of his show. Outside the station, it's not uncommon to find Manuel in his red FMLN tee shirt, but after a recent shake-up, he's making an effort to keep his political views separate from his radio work.

Anyone who knows Manuel, and that's pretty much everyone in Santa Marta, knows his politics. His father who now farms corn and beans was an FMLN guerilla fighter. Two of his siblings died during the war, one as an FMLN combatant, and Manuel, who plays the guitar and sings, has even written songs for the party.
[MANUEL SINGING UP AND UNDER]

Proclamations of political loyalty are not uncommon in a country where people sometimes paint their party colors on their cow fences, but Canto a la Vida is billed as a musical show -- not a political one.
[MANUEL SPEAKING IN SPANISH, TRANSLATION]


MANUEL NAVARETTE: I play music that practically was all made during the conflict and written by guerilla groups. It was music that reflected the thoughts and feelings of the people. They had prohibited me from playing these songs, and wherever I put them on there was some concern about the outside image of the station. They feared it would be seen as taking sides on this or that issue.


SHARON LERNER: At first Manuel resisted the request not to play guerilla songs and decided to take his show off the air in protest. Rumors spread that he was being censored, and an all-staff meeting was held to discuss the situation. Ultimately he agreed not to play songs that made overt political references, and the fracas died down.

Canto a la Vida is back on the air now. The elections are over. In Victoria's mayoral race, the right wing Arena candidate won. But Radio Victoria's political struggle continues. Christina Star.


CHRISTINA STAR: One of our reporters belongs to the Arena party, and she was elected to like the youth committee of her town, and so we've had to talk to them and say you know either you're with the radio or you're with the political party. You can't be doing both things.
[CHICKENS AND MOUNTAIN AMBIENCE]


SHARON LERNER: Back on the mountain, Joche Lieva hears none of that internal effort.
[JOCHE LIEVA SPEAKING SPANISH, TRANSLATION]


JOCHE LIEVA: The station's only agenda is social. It has no political colors. If a person wants to make an announcement, they can do it perfectly on Radio Victoria, regardless of their party.


SHARON LERNER: Perhaps, for Lieva, Radio Victoria really has achieved the elusive goal of objectivity. Or maybe it's enough that his local station tries to ferret the truth from the messy passions that rule his country.
[RADIO VICTORIA STATION ID IN SPANISH]
For On the Media, I'm Sharon Lerner.
[MUSIC]