The CEO of Voice of Africa Radio, Space Clottey has referred to his organisation as a no nonsense radio station.

“Voice of Africa Radio is a no nonsense station. We report as we see it and how it should be said in the media. We don’t cover up anything. We say it freely.”

Space Clottey said he set up Voice of Africa Radio first without a license but after three years he realised he wanted to do so much which would have been impossible without getting a legal accreditation.

The Voice of Africa Radio CEO was speaking at a symposium on the topic “Media and the Riots” organised by the Latest.com to train participants on media reportage of riots.

Space did not mince words in showing his disagreement with the use of words like black and white to describe Africans and Caucasians.

“Before I continue, I have heard so much about the words “black” and “white” here. At Voice of Africa Radio we vehemently oppose to the use of the word “black” to describe, we use the words Africans who are born to African or Caribbean families. We believe we are all Africans and there is nothing like “black”.

“We also believe there is nothing like “white”. We have Africans, Europeans and English and that is it. Let us accept it and let us move on with it.”

Commenting on the August riots he said “How did we see the uprising and how did we report on it? On the 4^th August 2011, I was sleeping when my programme officers started to text me and call me “please watch the news and listen to LBC, see how they are reporting it”.

Space said, he quickly mobilized members of his team and went to Tottenham and started calling everybody to monitor how the mainstream media were reporting the event.

“Straight away all programmes at Voice of Africa Radio were changed to report from the positive side of things although it said Africans were involved in this uprising. What we saw was that the media was portraying the uprising as an African thing, ‘Africans have gone mad, destroyed things and are causing confusion’.

According to space, his reporters started to interview the youth who gave their opinions and found that it was not just about Mark Duggan who has been killed but it was something more than that.

“We have just heard from our two sisters whose brothers have been brutalized and killed. So of course we must take it from that perspective. The youth are very disturbed, they have no home, they don’t see any opportunities”.

Voice of Africa Radio used to offer six-month training programmes for unemployed youth in the community under Labour government which helped them find jobs after training but the collaboration ,the CEO noted has been suspended by the government of the day.

“Now with the Conservative government we have abandoned this fantastic plan. People’s hopes have been dashed within the twinkle of an eye. Adults were also involved in the uprising as were community activists.” He lamented.

Space refuted widespread view by the mainstream media that the riot was carried out by African youth.

“It was not an African thing. The UK was very unhappy about our brother Mark Duggan shot dead and the conservative policies. So we put all these people on air to tell us how they felt. Politicians from Tottenham were interviewed on a daily basis; programmes were run on air so we could discuss it from an African perspective.”

He said that the Ghanaian media was very excited to see how the UK would handle the situation. Whether the UK would allow the demonstrators to democratically express their views or let the people continue to loot.

“The media in Ghana took it up seriously because they were surprised that an uprising was taking place in  the UK, Britain being a country that has supported so many uprisings now they have an uprising on their own doorstep ? ”

These media organisations carried out a day to day report on the uprising and were surprised how the police came hard on the demonstrators. Space said.

The Voice of Africa CEO was thankful to the over 650000 listeners of the station and said was surprised to receive a call from a prisoner who was listening to Voice of Africa Radio at the time of the riots.

 “A few days ago someone from prison said, Space I must thank Voice of Africa Radio sincerely for the reportage of the uprising. I listened to many stations but I have to say that your coverage was fantastic because it gave me the clear perspective about what was happening and what had to be done”.

By Florence Simpson/Shereen Lawrence/Voice of Africa Radio/UK