Law
vision
Autonomy of Radio and Television: Expectation and reality
Sadrul Hasan Mazumder
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." - Article 19: Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in the General Assembly of the United Nations held on December 10, 1948.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is an international treaty, ratified by over 140 States (by Bangladesh in 2002), which imposes legally binding obligations on parties to respect a number of human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 19 of the ICCPR guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression in terms very similar to those found in Article 19 of the UDHR.
Background
After the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent and sovereign country, the government by a President's Order made on September 13, 1972 (Order No 115 of 1972), took over the Pakistan Television Corporation Limited and named it as Bangladesh Television. Article 9 of the Order provided that "The Government shall manage and administer the affairs of the undertaking vested in it under Article 4 in such manner as it deems fit."
The Radio formed the integral part of the Department of Information, a Directorate of the Information Ministry and it continued to be so until recently. On May 24, 1986, the President by an Ordinance (Ord. No. XXXII of 1986) established the National Broadcasting Authority (NBA) bringing both the Radio and Television under its administrative control. This Authority consisted of a Chairman and Members not less that three and not more than seven. The Chairman and the Members were appointed by the government from amongst persons who were in the service of the Republic and they held office on such terms and conditions as determined by the government.
The functions of the Authority, amongst others, were to control, manage, operate, and develop the Radio and Television and implement the policy of the government in respect of broadcasting. As per provision of the Ordinance, no plans and programmes could be implemented by the National Broadcasting Authority without prior clearance from the government. The Authority, in the discharge of its functions, was bound by such general or special instruction as was issued by the Government from time to time.
Mass media as means of governance
In the modern age of information technology politics has largely changed into what, experienced by most citizens through broadcast and print media of their choice. Democracy in a country is, therefore, absolutely depends on the media report and interpretation of political events and issues, and how media itself influences the political process and shapes public opinion. Thus, media has become central to politics and public life in contemporary democracy.
In any democracy access to media is one of the key measures of power and equality. Media can shape power and participation in society in negative ways, by obscuring the motives and interests behind political decisions, or in positive ways, by promoting the involvement of people in those decisions. In this respect the media and governance equation becomes important.
Guaranteeing people's right to know
Public broadcasters are a vital component of the broadcasting sector in most countries, and will continue to be so long into the future. Historically, such broadcasters have often been the only national broadcast medium and continue to occupy a dominant position in many countries. Funded out of the public purse, they are a unique way of ensuring that quality programmes covering a wide range of interests and responding to the needs of all sectors of the population are broadcast. They thus ensure diversity in programming and make an important contribution to satisfying the public's right to know.
The public broadcasting sector in Bangladesh have been misused as a propaganda tool of vested interests of the parties in power. Bangladesh Radio and Bangladesh Television were established with the primary aim of rendering public service for the transmission of news and entertainment. But both institutions were, from the very inception, devalued by political appropriation, overt censorship and restraints of due process.
Politics of autonomy
The government exerts a great deal of control over public broadcasters, using them as mouthpiece for government rather than as independent source of information for the public. It is only when the independence of public broadcasters is guaranteed -- in law and in practice -- that they can truly operate as servants of the public interest, providing high quality information from a variety of sources to the public. But the ill fate of the people of our country is that the last two democratic governments of Bangladesh attempted to devise mechanism to retain control over the electronic media directly or indirectly. Since the independence of Bangladesh the electronic media have always been a propaganda machine in favour of the exiting government.
Granting autonomy to Radio and Television was one of the main demands in the joint declaration (announced Nov 19, 1990) of the three alliances announced after the fall of Ershad. Section 2(d) of the Joint Declaration states, "The mass media, including the radio and television, will have to be made into independent and autonomous bodies so that they become completely neutral..."
After the democratic election and with the restoration of parliamentary democracy in 1991, the issue of 'public broadcasting autonomy' gained momentum. It was a great expectation of the general public involved in the anti-autocratic movement. But we have noticed with frustration that both the major political parties enjoyed power but did not uphold their commitment to grant autonomy to electronic media.
Political commitments and govt initiatives
The major political parties during the October 1, 2001 general election pledged in their election manifesto regarding the autonomy of Radio and Television as the following:
Bangladesh Awami League in its election manifesto said, " The law enacted by us to make Radio and Bangladesh Television autonomous institution free from party influences, will be made effective. The freedom of newspapers will be protected."
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), however, did not pledge anything especially in its election manifesto but criticised Awami League for using the state owned media for the party interest.
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh in its election manifesto mentioned, " Healthy and creative thinking shall be developed in literature, culture and mass media. Moral based programmes, which are helpful for flourishing the actual thinking and feeling of people and human qualities shall be published in all mass media including Radio and Bangladesh Television…."
The pledges of the major political parties in the election manifestoes during the June 12, 1996 general election regarding the autonomy of Radio and Bangladesh Television were as follow:
Bangladesh Awami League promised for, "Autonomy to radio, TV and government-controlled news media;. privatisation of newspapers now owned by the government"
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), however, promised that policy for free flow of information shall continue.
Jamat-e-Islami Bangladesh in its election manifesto said, "Government trust be abolished and the newspapers be handed over to individual entrepreneurs" and "withdrawal of government control in matters of distribution of advertisement"
Jatiya Party (Ershad) which was adversely criticised for capturing and utilising the state-run Radio and Bangladesh Television completely for the party interest came with the promise that, "Mass media shall be utilised for development of character and humanity. Professional quality and the status of the journalists shall be enhanced."
Just after winning the mandate of the people in June 12, 1996 election The Awami League government constituted a Commission for framing Rules and Regulations for the autonomy of Radio and Bangladesh Television (Radio-TV Autonomy Commission) in September 1996. But the whole nation witnessed that the Awami League government at the fag end of its five-year tenure took initiative to give much awaited autonomy to the state-run Radio and Bangladesh Television. The cabinet of the then Awami League government recommended two draft laws on May 7, 2000 seeking to grant autonomy to Radio and Bangladesh Television. The key points of the draft law were:
- Separate authority for Radio and Bangladesh Television
- A committee of five members would be selected by the government with a Chairman as its head
- Telecast of news and programmes would be in accordance with the National Broadcasting policy
- The government shall have the power to dissolve the authority
This move of the Awami League government to give 'autonomy' to the state run Radio and Bangladesh Television bypassing substantial recommendations of the government-appointed "Radio-TV Autonomy Commission" which it was instrumental is setting up for the purpose in the first place, has evoked sharp criticism from the civil society organisations.
Changed behaviour
In spite of some limitations and preconditions of not criticising any political party during the rule of the caretaker government just before the election, the changed behaviour of the state run Radio and Bangladesh Television was of course encouraging. It would be clearer if we look at the following statistics:
During caretaker government: Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA) in its media monitoring report states, "The public-funded media largely managed to discharge its duty to inform the electorate impartially about the candidates in the 2001 parliamentary elections. Under the control of the non-party caretaker government, the public television and radio gave news coverage of the main parties on an equal basis.
"Public media however failed to provide in depth analysis or reporting on some serious issues during the campaign. Indeed, state radio censored its own coverage to such a degree that it did not broadcast any critical comments of party leaders made against their rivals."
During the BNP led 4-party Alliance: A report of Democracywatch released on October 2, 2002, which forecast the news coverage of 8:00 pm during the month of September, 2002 shows that 33.56 per cent of the news time was allotted to the country news. Prime Minister and her Cabinet got 31.96 per cent of the coverage of which Prime Minister alone got 8.94 per cent.
The report also states that out of the total political news Prime Minister got 27.75 percent coverage. The Bangladesh Television in the month of September 2002 gave only 0.91 per cent coverage to the human rights related issues. It was pointed out in the report that the ratio of news coverage of government and opposition during the month under consideration was 99:1.
No government initiative: Most interestingly although the present government has already completed nearly four years of its regime but has not yet taken any initiative on the issue of autonomy of Radio and Television. It has been observed that the 4-party alliance govt has already changed and in some cases cancelled various decisions and policies of the previous Awami League government on important national and local issues but has remained silent on this issue.
End notes
There is a prevailing belief that if the Radio and Bangladesh Television are given legal autonomy by just enacting laws, then they would actually get no autonomy. Many have argued that media is an elitist bourgeois construct, reflecting essentially bourgeois interests and values and conditions of existence, and can thus never serve the genuine interests of the people as a whole. Despite its democratic façade, it is said that the media remains exclusive, and people as a whole feel no real involvement in a process which appears to give them power but in reality does not.
The author is a development activist.
