Statement on World Radio Day 2020

Speeches by President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins

“Each year on the 13th of February, we are given the opportunity to mark World Radio Day, and thus remind ourselves of the importance of radio. While radio technology is well over a century old, radio broadcasts remain one of the most popular and effective ways for exchanging information, providing social interaction, and promoting the knowledge and values necessary for cohesive societies. Our local, regional and national radio stations offer us crucial information about our lives together, provide access to information and analysis of our society, and offer a platform, too, for a great, and welcome, diversity of opinions and views. So today, on World Radio Day, let us celebrate the power and beauty of the spoken word, and pay tribute to the valuable technology radio is in empowering all of our citizens. Radio has the capacity to bring communities together and, in doing so, fostering the positive dialogue that makes of our society one worth achieving.”