Disciplinary guidelines for electronic media next year

The government is aiming to strictly implement the Broadcast Commission and Act from the beginning of 2017 in order to better regulate the electronic media, Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu has said. The minister made the statement in response to points discussed by the speakers at a round table on World Television Day organised by Media Museum of Bangladesh in Dhaka on Monday afternoon. “We hope that by early 2017 this commission and act will be able to give security to the journalist and bring discipline to the sector,” the minister said. “Editors and journalists shall go through regular trainings in order to upgrade themselves and bring quality in their news representation.”Reporters 'suppressed'Defending the rights of journalists, Dhaka Reporters Unit General Secretary Raju Ahmed said there was no wage scale for reporters in the electronic media nor any trade unions in any of the media houses. “Media is still under the control of the owners. If reporters raise their voices for their rights, they get fired or are suppressed in other ways,” Mr Ahmed told the round table. Bangladesh Television Director General Harun Ur Rashid said there had been a "failure" to recognise reporters and programme officers and implement a wage board for them, while Executive Chief of Media Museum of Bangladesh, MM Badshah, said reporters need more legal protection. “In the history of Bangladesh, verdict was never given for the cases filed for attacking journalists. Only a lower court in Faridpur gave verdict in such case but it’s still pending in the High Court,” he said.Content concernsSpeakers at the program also emphasised on ensuring quality content program for the viewers and bringing more professionalism among the journalists. “A child sees around 1,800 killings and some 200,000 incidents of violence before they reach the age of 18," said DU Prof Sheikh Hafizur Rahman, quoting figures from a study. "The people working in the TV media have to decide carefully about the things they want to show to children and the nation.” Harun Ur Rashid also voiced his concerns over viewing patterns, saying building programmes based on the viewers’ demands would bring more a favourable results for the television channel owners. “We have to find out why our viewers are choosing foreign channels instead of our programme. Our viewers only see our channels during crisis hours,” he said.