Foreign channels face sudden govt ban,
Govt hopes ad money for TV of crony-man.
People nowadays watch news on cyberspace,
Free flow of info could bring crony TVs back in race.
A decision of the government led cable operators to take off broadcast of foreign television channels at one fell swoop. Government had earlier ordered cable operators that no foreign television channels with advertisements be aired from October 1 onwards.1 The reason put forward in favor of the action is that these channels earn a lot from Bangladeshi advertisers meanwhile local channels are deprived of advertisement revenues. Government also lacks revenues from airing of these ads on foreign channels. But the truth is media houses,owned by crony capitalists,failed to meet infotainment needs of local population.
This latest step may deem as isolated one ,but just a week ago government deliberately banned all unregistered news outlets. When it was found that except one,owned by a ruling party MP's family-owned company and member of Chinese Communist Party Youth Committee, all the crony-dominated news outlets went offline for one-long hour. BTRC later backtracked its decision and allowed to function all registered and unregistered news outlets as usual.
Some of these crony-dominated news outlets showed their true colors when mysterious death of a secret lover of a son of a powerful industrialist pointed fingers at that son. Detention of a rising star and coverage around her further exposed them. The whole incident unfolded just before a court decision whether it would accept or nullify plea,made by victim's sister, that charge sheet should focus on provocation to suicide.The platforms were full of intentional reports to flood the press with stories that deliberately assassinate characters of the rising star and the deceased girl who lived alone in a Gulshan apartment.Idea behind the reports was to influence the verdict of the court. And they got ads lavishly from that conglomerate.
Couple of weeks later,series of phone conversations appeared to leak on the social media platforms. Little known unregistered media outlets started to broadcast them on YouTube. In addition, these outlets in the cyberspace have become the only source of information about ruling party corruption.
Many media outlets who had leaked conversation of others to deliberately shape outcome in favor of ruling party in the past remained noticeably quiet this time.
Evolution of Bangladesh’s media industry says Bangladeshi press started its journey as spokesman of respective political parties. Politically biased reporting, bullying led other business groups to embark on media business as such stories did tremendous damage to business. More or less these houses act as guards of these business groups and no professionalism is ever practiced at these houses. Rather they became rehabilitation centers of former comrades.
Either the owner ,editor or chief reporter of leading outlets of any branch of media is former leaders of various wings of political parties. Credible news and entertainment are hard to get from these outlets.
Apart from that we also have agency backed houses where news and views reflect those of the agencies.
In addition, even the so called neutral news papers have links with ruling regime through their trust fund that hardly goes through any scrutiny. I have respect for the communists and I do acknowledge their importance and contributions in sane and stable nation-building process. But their attitude and behavior towards the nation and people will be different when they will get 80% or 100% of the power. They are no different from a theocratic ruling regime. Just the other side of the same coin. The so called neutral and best selling newspaper of Bangladesh is the most successful project of the Communist Party of this country.The brand does not have any direct political affiliation with the party itself but is more similar to “Naya Diganta”,the ultra-right wing's civilian spokesman.Party cadres will do their level best to keep the paper floating and running and commercial success means free flow of revenue. Even if the editorial staffs resign from the so called neutral news paper and start a new one ,they will manage to get at least 5000 dedicated readers from the party loyalists. Their news items are agenda-driven. The so called neutral news paper and its affiliates showed its true color during the caretaker government which deliberately tried to purge politicians and bureaucrats turning a blind eye to the corruption of the garrison and freezing the constitution for two years. That govt's role was even used to criticize the role of the NGOs in other countries. Later when stricter anti-NGO policies were taken in Russia or in India the role of the caretaker government was discussed as a case. Riding on the image of number one newspaper of Bangladesh, it manipulated its role and successfully presented itself as partner of development organizations that promote democracy and freedom of speech. Development organizations have budgets and program calendars for a particular country. Year-long programs and events are maintained through these calendars. Sponsored supplements on popular dailies,news reports are proof that the event is observed and the money is well spent. News cuttings, links and video clips are stored in the headquarters in donor countries. In Bangladesh, NGO Affairs Bureau under Prime Minister’s Office is responsible for disbursing foreign funds. But it is the Army-led agency that decide clearing and disbursement of such fund. In the past, Bangladesh witnessed many incidents where ultra-right and left had played controversial roles in favor of military regime. By thriving on sponsored supplements of development organizations, it flaunts an image of direct representative of these organizations ,which is untrue. And many of its affiliated NGOs also received disbursement of funds from NGO Affairs Bureau without any obstacle. It is highly untrue that it is neutral. In addition, it is shy to expose corruption of ruling party family, just before the verdict of a retired military official who worked in a real estate company it published biased reports.Its desk reports are based on a foreign news agency identified as vehicle of disinformation campaign,its reports on damage assessment of natural calamities open further alleys of corruption and in 2014 it deliberately depicted a particular community as deciding factor behind a controversial elections stoking communal hatred.
In recent years, it tightened its grip on publication houses by reducing the number of independent publishing houses. Now it even engages in publication of current affairs digest vital for public service job seekers’ success. It nowadays behaves more like a dictating newspaper,mostly found in closed countries. However, business partner of the newspaper Transcom Group suffered a lot due to the controversial newspaper. Transcom Group owner’s daughter was raped and murdered by ruling party hooligans in their second term. In the fourth term, his grandson was butchered in Bangladesh’s worst recorded terrorist incident where dozens of Japanese and Italians and other foreign nationals were murdered.Heartbroken owner gave in to Covid last year,but the editorial staffs suffered little. They did not spend a single day in jail. In Occidental countries, controversial role of news outlets led to resignation of editorial staffs. That did not happen in Bangladesh.
Concentration of media houses and publication industry into few hands already kills the sources of free flow of information.
In addition, introduction of controversial Digital Security Act introduced by JaShoD minister Inu complicated the matter by muzzling the independent voices.
Even trade-union like professional bodies of the journalists are dominated by these crony-backed journalists.
People obviously inclined to social media platforms to quench their news thirst from whatever is there on these platforms. These underground, semiprofessional, little-known news platforms did tremendously well to disclose dirty little secrets of ruling regime. As there is a complete silence from the so called mainstream media to avoid retribution, there is disclosing of truth from these underground media with no holds barred in a child-like manner. In addition, quality and well-made contents of foreign channels already won hearts and minds of Bangladeshi audiences. So ads gradually follow the footsteps of the audiences. Facebook and YouTube earned huge revenues from Bangladesh riding on the popularity of the contents broadcast on these channels.Following government instructions they even pay VAT and taxes to government. The foreign TV channels like Facebook and YouTube earn millions of dollars from Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshi crony-dominated TV channels keep complaining that they do not receive enough revenues. They put the blame squarely on foreign TV stations.
For instance, local TV stations hardly shed any light when official of Prime Minister’s Office and his wife and other ruling party members owned shares of a mobile financial service company and profited from selling of shares of that company where Bangladesh Post Office also has stake.
Meanwhile, boat club controversy, e-commerce debacle also exposed corruption of ruling party member and law-enforcement officials. Leading media houses stayed notably mute in the wake of such controversies. And the little known online and social media based news channels filled the vacuum.
This abrupt implementation comes at this moment to restrain their activities. But it will make people to subscribe more these news channels in the cyberspace leading the government to lose a vital chunk of the audience base.And it is costly because the government may no longer disseminate and convince people about its own version of an incident. In the end this measure will turn out to be a damp squibs.Free flow of information is the best strategy. If professionalism and free flow of information are at play then the flow will wash away any undesired substance just like a swollen river.Moot point is to stop the free flow of information.
Notes And References:
1 “ Bangladesh Cable Operators Shut Broadcast of Foreign TV Channels with Ads”,bdnews24.com,October 01,2021Link here
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