I recently found one of my friends working in a television channel very upset. When asked, he said he was forced to withdraw a news item (although it was very factual) upon pressure from the owner of the channel. The reason is that the news confronts other business interests of the channel’s owners.
News bosses in private channels have to face this kind of content control by the management almost regularly. Journalists struggle relentlessly in the face of business and political interests.
The same week that we were discussing this issue, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went to visit the Ministry of Information where she addressed some high officials. While giving them directions to highlight the government’s success stories in national media, the prime minister also talked about the situation of the media in general.
“We don’t want to control the press. We expect that the press will be an auxiliary force of the society and the country. The press must have liberty, but along with that, good sense should prevail on everybody for the sake of society while disseminating news,” she said. Hasina was speaking in particular about the electronic media and announced that she wants a policy for electronic media – television and radio – so that no one can broadcast anything dirty and harmful to society.
In fact, the media landscape in Bangladesh has changed a lot over the past twelve years. Licenses for setting up television and radio stations are given completely on political influence, and it was the same case during the BNP-Jamaat years.
If the prime minister seemed a little unhappy with national news coverage, it must be said that her government approved most of these channels and radio stations to operate and surely the owners were chosen politically. Despite this, it seems that there is dissatisfaction among the policymakers over the news and program content of the media houses.
When the draft of the much talked about broadcast policy was released early 2009, journalists, leaders, and civil society watchdogs strongly protested saying that it was aimed at gagging media freedom. At a number of seminars and roundtables, the media practitioners and civil society members said that freedom of expression in the media should be protected. So, a move is now underway to formulate a broadcast policy involving journalists and other stakeholders.
The policy is expected to be announced soon. While we have no idea about the contents of the policy, we hope that broadcasting regulation is left transparent and independent, and the media is operated by professionals. A democratic country’s media landscape, including new media, should be diverse, independent, and sustainable.
Media professionals must deal with the increasing complexities of politics, violence, poverty, and other social issues. There are allegations of sensationalism, yellow journalism, and political bias against many journalists and media houses. We cannot really ignore these allegations. But it is also true that many newsmen try to carry out their professional responsibilities ethically. The question is – who controls the content, the journalists or the owners?
During the early 60s, proprietors were more aware that media ownership was actually a business to earn public trust. These days, huge investments in the media by private enterprises have opened the door to better salaries and facilities for many newsmen. But the new media barons are not ready to focus on the ethical side of journalism; rather they seek to use their media outlets for increasing their power, influence, and wealth. Many of them do so by structuring newsrooms and programming operations in a way that they personally dictate what goes on air, and even in print.
Journalists in Bangladesh not only face the muscle-swinging hoodlums on the streets and the political stalwarts, they also have to fight within their workplace to be allowed to do their jobs.
However there are some encouraging aspects also. Bangladesh’s citizens have become much more aware of the role of media in shaping society. There are efforts in different areas of society to allow journalists and media houses to do their jobs professionally. The media has become more pluralistic, with news and issues important to ordinary people being given more airtime. Online media and citizen journalism have contributed to a more diverse media landscape in the country.
It is time to think about the kind of regulations Bangladesh’s media needs. Should they be self or state-regulated? Self-regulation seems more important in order to ensure ethical standards. Without it, we cannot seek to refrain from the types of media immoderation that we have been witnessing over the years. These include identifying rape victims, showing or publishing dead bodies, asking intrusive questions to the relatives of accident or trauma victims, etc.
In many ways, our media today is the last resort of liberals in the society. The rules of the game they play are defined by fierce political rivalry between two major parties, rise of an orthodox fundamentalist force, a fragile democratic system, and a dominant muscle culture. Liberal voices prefer to silence themselves rather than fight. But the country needs a robust media to support its democracy, and a strong democracy must ensure a free media. The struggle of the media practitioners is to keep their role as storytellers alive.
