Thu 15 May 2008
Some developments related to Bangladesh media are raising concerns. All of these may be unrelated. But being put all together, it creates an unsettling picture.
Since Jan 11: Owners and directors of at least 5 tv channels and 5 newspapers are under the ACC anti-corruption dragnet.
Sep, 07: First 24-7 news channel CSB shut down.
Nov 07: Economist reports
For the regime, the anti-graft drive has had some useful side-effects. The intelligence services are systematically acquiring shares in private media companies, by offering the release from detention of their owners in return.
Jan 15, 08: New Age reports that in the first year of emergency 35 journalists were injured, 13 arrested, 35 assaulted, 83 threatened and 13 sued while one media practitioner was forced to sign an undertaking and another came under attack.
April, 08 Popular nightly talk show on Ekushey TV closes down amid on/off restriction.
May 2nd, 08: Jai Jai Din editor Shafiq Rehman resigns without citing reason and replaced by a relative unknown Shahidul Huq Khan. His first editorial favours govt which is a radical shift for the paper.
May 12th: All the major editors issue a joint statement:
“It has been noticed that different agencies—military and civilian—have been intervening in the work of the media,” the statement says.
“Media do not have freedom in a state of emergency. Regular interference in day-to-day work of the media is not acceptable,” the statement says.
May 13th: Ekushey TV fires 14 journalists from its news division.
May 15th: 2008: dissident New age issues note in front page:
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
New Age’s attention has been drawn to certain false, fabricated news items published in various newspapers in the last few days claiming that its management is under pressure from certain quarters to bring changes in its editorial personnel. We want to unequivocally state that neither is the New Age management under any such pressure from without – whether in the form of direction or suggestion – nor does it have any such compulsion from within. We fully stand by our editor, Nurul Kabir, and his team in their continuing efforts to implement an editorial policy that is in its entirety owned and endorsed by the management of the newspaper. We would further like to state that any attempts – be they external or internal – to pressure the management into changing its editorial stance or personnel will only find the management and the editorial team united in their efforts to maintain the integrity of the newspaper and its commitment to its readers
What’s cooking?
May 16th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Electronic media has been a favorite sector of our corrupt politicians, specially the immediate past BNP regime.
Only yesterday the court handed down a 7 year jail term to Atiqullah Khan Masud, editor of Janakantha, for fraud.
Mirza Abbas, Mayor Khoka, Falu, Mirza Abbas, Giasuddin Al Mamun, Nazmul Huda, Mannan Bhuiyan own many of TV stations currently on air.
I am sure considering that most of these people are behind bars and are accused of various crimes and most of these outlets may have been financed by black money.
The article author leaves out many unflattering facts about the ownerships and roles of many of the media outlets and their content.
Broadcasting license for CSB was issued just before BNP handed over power and guess who the owner is - the son of infamous Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, currently jailed fighting corruption charges. CSB was accused of forgery for acquiring it’s frequency allocation.
Just some fact checks.
May 17th, 2008 at 6:14 am
When every single sector and professional body in Bangladesh have been totally CORRUPT pre-1/11, is it possible that ONLY the newspapers and TV media have not participated in political and monetary corruption, in that environment?
It is horrendous that any media employee is harrassed by anyone - and I dont want to deviate from harrassment issue.
But to add to tiktiki’s question “What’s cooking?” my question is:
1. If our media (is supposed to) report on public and political corruption, then WHO reports on MEDIA CORRUPTION?
2. Why was there NO political corruption reported during pre-1/11? Was media free then, or did media find it NOT necessary to report, or unaware of any “political mafia” corruption, or were they bought off by politicians to stay quiet?
Mamoon #1 - glad you raised the reality of media corruption - and we must ADDRESS these issues more seriously.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Interesting tidbit there about the 14 journalists being fired. Any names we might recognise?
#1 forgets to mention that people still believe these private channels’ news coverage more than BTV’s. That is because despite being owned by political cronies, their news content is seen as independent and not propagandist. For instance, Falu’s NTV could carry lead news items about AL leaders’ moidan bhashon, while BTV would black it out. Ekhon ki tahole amra amader private channel guloke btv banate chachchi?
May 18th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
dhakathekebolchi #3 “Ekhon ki tahole amra amader private channel guloke btv banate chachchi?
—–
I think there are 2 types of Bangladeshi “news” media:
1) sterilized pro-govt news like BTV
2) sensational-istic political soap-opera “news” like our independant TV and newspapers
Reason I describe item 2 this way is, none of the various types of BD media ever take the responsibility of INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, which is to investigate, expose and truly REPORT the act of crime and corruption in BD politics and society.
Our VISION of ‘independant news’ should not be either BTV-type, or political soap-opera type - but they should be ACTIVE in anti-corruptional, anti-criminal, INVESTIGATIVE reporting type. And in BD we dont have that culture in our news media.
Big problem is of-course reporter harrassment. During last civilian govts pre 1/11, Bangladesh had the highest rate of reporter harrassment in the world, which made investigative journalism PHYSICALLY difficult, not just culturally absent.
Which is what I was saying in comment #2, which is, our newspapers and TV media have NEVER done any true investigative reporting (against crime and corrupotion, not just two-line news in the back page) - but have thrived on TABLOID-type political soap opera.
However, the media COMPANY ITSELF must be legal and clean - I dont want to get anti-corruption news from a CHANNEL which is ITSELF illegal, or owned by the thief of Dhaka!
Therefore those channels must be disciplined and legalized before they spread ANY news. I agree with govt actions, but we must PUSH govt not only to ROOT OUT illegal channels, but also to support proper anti-corruption reporting, AND protect our reporters.
May 18th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
The media in recent months were buzzing with political guests demanding discussion “songlap” with the government.
Many politicians also came on various talk shows and demanded that the ban on indoor politics be lifted across the country.
The ban has now been lifted - why isn’t the media now asking the politicians what they have done since lifting of the ban.
The Bangladeshi media is just feeding the public what the public wants - suspense, intrigue and exitement - just like mega popular reality TV shows.
Bangladeshi public loves political melodrama and that is what we are getting from the TV and print media.
In response to #3, I will give an example.
When prothom-alo published a story about Falu and his corruption, NTV ran a series of unsubstantiated “news stories” againts the owner of Trnascom group - Mr. Latifur Rahman, who is one of the most honest and leading businessman of Bangladesh.
I don’t remember any of the TV stations doing news stories about the corruption allegations againts any BNP or AL leaders during political governments.
These days I see regular statements by AL and BNP leaders criticizing the current regime. People like Khandakar Delwar are making regular statments againts the current power brokers and these statments are being shown on TV.
So I don’t really understand what has changed in terms of media freedom since 1/11.
May 19th, 2008 at 12:36 am
I think its really fishy that Mafuz Anam is not involved. The reasoning is that he cooperated in publishing army propaganda. I even quit reading the Daily Star as it sounds like a army taboloid. They don’t report just as to how many bribes the army collected starting from letting Shah Alam and family of Bashundhara group leave the country. While army collects the bribe money in their coffers all Mafuz Anam does is to point out all civilian corruption. The army are angels to Mafuz Anam and he has no problem sacrificing his ethics.
May 19th, 2008 at 6:01 am
Bangladeshi public loves political melodrama and that is what we are getting from the TV and print media. Its valuable notes. Thanks!
May 19th, 2008 at 8:40 am
ETV suspends journalists
Tue, May 13th, 2008 9:36 pm BdST
Dhaka, May 13 (bdnews24.com) –Private TV station ETV has suspended or terminated 14 journalists on charges of observing work stoppage and neglect of duty. Updates with corrections
The journalists denied the charges.
“The (suspended) journalists have been asked to explain their breach of discipline and neglect of duty. The action was taken on clear charges against them,” the channel’s managing director Ashraful Alam said in a statement Tuesday.
A senior official of Ekushey Television on condition of anonymity told bdnews24.com that the journalists, including the head of news, were handed letters and asked not to come to the office until an order of reinstatement was issued.
Refusal by chief news editor Ahmed Zubayer to air a news story was at the heart of the incident.
A notice was served on Zubayer on Sunday after he refused to broadcast the story filed by Gulshan Swapna, a reporter.
Several journalists alleged that the story had actually been dictated by the chairman of the company, Abdus Salam.
Salam refused to comment, when approached by bdnews24.com.
When other journalists came to know about the incident Monday, they observed a four-hour work stoppage from midday.
Monday’s 5 pm news bullet was not aired.
The suspended journalists are preparing to hold a press conference, one of the reporters said.
A senior ETV reporter, asking not to be named, said the notice was also served on news presenter Majumder Jewel, business reporters Nazneen Munni and Rahnuma Sharmin, and diplomatic correspondent Jhumur Bari.
Reporters Farhana Rahman and Biswajit Das are also facing the suspension order.
Senior reporter Farzana Rupa was terminated.
Head of news Shah Alamgir and chief reporter Shakil Ahmed were not suspended, as earlier reported, Pranab Saha, executive producer for ETV, told bdnews24.com.
Pranab disputed the figure of suspended journalists and said only seven faced the order.
Shakil termed the incident of suspension sad and told bdnews24.com: “An organisation usually has different types of people. Such a decision at the instigation of some people is harmful to any organisation.”
He said: “We started work with Ekushey Television with much hope. We reached this place through much sacrifice. So we hope the authorities will withdraw their decision.”
May 20th, 2008 at 3:03 am
“Earlier this week, I had my own Crossfire moment with Zafar Sobhan, Assistant Editor of Daily Star, while discussing a Drishtipat article. I noted if one goes to the Daily Star webpage and googles torture, the results, as least for the first three pages are almost all about 2004 and 2005. On the contrary, if one does the same thing at the New Age website, the very first item of the results is a strong denunciation of torture under the current government by Rahnuma Ahmed.
In response, Mr. Sobhan angrily retorted:
2. please feel free to switch to the new age if you find it a better paper. of course, neither new age nor you had much to say about torture under the last government. i guess it come down to who’s ox is being gored, eh?
3. http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/05/04/d70504020330.htm
perhaps not as tough as you would like, but, then again, neither have i ever read anything by you condemning torture under the last government.
So, here was the Assistant Editor of the most widely-read English newspaper in Bangladesh, accusing me of not doing my part in protesting torture, particularly under the last government. The irony here, of course, is too sad to really savor. One only hopes that Mr. Sobhan and others like him who continue to look the other way as this military government continues to torture with impunity find a sliver of conscience somewhere in themselves and speak up against all that is wrong in Bangladesh today.”
http://sotacit.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/the-daily-star-and-torture/
May 23rd, 2008 at 7:26 pm
The media was buzzing with demands for the trial of War Criminals and banning Jamaat from Elections. The current government was put under immense pressure to start the process, with the media putting a strong focus on the issue.
BNP and the 4-party member groups announced today they plan to contest the upcoming election as an alliance and may go for agitation together if Khaleda and Nizami are not released.
Now why isn’t the media putting the same emphasis on this new development?
May 29th, 2008 at 12:28 am
An interesting debate is going on in Dhaka Shohor:
http://dhakashohor.blogspot.com/2008/05/daily-stars-lowest-point-error-ridden.html
The participants include at least 4 bloggers connected with UV/Drishtipat - so if nothing else, this shows that at least we are open to pluralism.
May 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
[...] Voices Blog lists the events that have unsettled Bangladeshi media which includes some recent shockers: May 2nd, 08: Jai Jai Din (news daily) editor Shafiq Rehman [...]
June 10th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
[...] blog Unheard Voices riporta un elenco delle circostanze che hanno portato scompiglio nei media bangladesi, incluse alcune recenti provocazioni: 2 maggio [...]