Still Distant BTV Autonomy
Like the Special Powers Act, no government seems keen on relaxing its hold on the electronic media, as if its very survival depends on sticking with these two instruments anyhow. That appears to be the inner feeling of a party government, but outwardly it has spared no pain to present itself as the champion of civil rights and free media.
That is the bottom-line about the above two test-cases of bona fides of the two major political parties in the country insofar as basic democratic rights in a pluralistic society... It is a pity we have to say this. The post-autocracy BNP government, 1991-95 despite their avowed commitment to the three-party alliance's historic agreement on certain do's in 1990 did not keep its words on striking out SPA and giving autonomy to radio and television. Subsequently, Awami League, the remaining major co-signatory to the covenant of understanding on how they all visualised running the government after the experience with autocracy, has all but gone back on its promise. After nearly three years in power, the AL government spokesman the State Minister for Information Abu Sayeed says that the government is 'now examining matters relating to the legal, administrative and technical changes involved in turning the BTV and Bangladesh Betar into autonomous institutions. Given the time at the disposal of the present government and the distracting signals it will take a miracle to fulfil the agenda any time soon. Thus two successive tenures of elected governments have all but passed by and we can see nothing by way of TV autonomy as even an unfolding reality. For reliable and politically slant-free news and views there continues to be a wholesale dependence upon foreign satellite channels.
The Prime Minister is saying everything about BTV - its goals, modernisation, network expansion etc. - but on the essential question of giving autonomy to the electronic media her authentic voice is seldom heard, even though she knows there is an impatient craving for it. On such a crucial matter of political and public import we would much rather she spoke than her state minister for information who actually did on Tuesday following the PM's launch of the balanced, modernised and rehabilitated (BMRised) BTV station in Dhaka.
We join the PM in expressing gratitude to the Japanese government for having consistently evinced a keen interest in updating the BTV's technology, including fitting it with the latest satellite news gathering apparatus. But these latest technical beefings of the TV infrastructure would be of little use, could even risk miscarriage and counter productivity, if the contents of BTV broadcasts are incorrigibly monopolistic, squinted, partisan, self-serving and self-aggrandising. Apparently to preclude the pressure for autonomy on the BTV it is oft-proclaimed by the government that private TV channels are being allowed to operate anyway. But BTV's autonomy cannot be traded for private channels; they are not co-equals in any sense of the term. As a public institution for democracy run on the tax-payers' money, BTV must necessarily be fully professional, transparent, accountable and answerable to its millions of viewers at home. And overseas, it has to be the keeper of national image and purveyor of our creative qualities. In fact, by delaying the autonomisation of radio and television, the government could be giving a handle to private parties with malcontent to surface at some later date and cause harm to the beliefs system which it so professedly holds dear.
Moreover, if in the public eye, the BTV has become something of an 'insulated party propaganda machinery' then the government also runs the risk of being suspected of licensing private channels to people of their liking. In other words, there might be a perception that the monopoly-hold of the government was rearing to spread tentacles, gathering another dimension to it, so to speak. PM Sheikh Hasina wants the BTV to project our history and heritage without any travesty, help us compete with the outside world and be catalyst in national development efforts. But none of these goals she sets, nor the beliefs system that is apolitically close to the heart of our people would be realisable without the virtues of bold, patriotic, unfettered and yet responsible electronic media operating in our midst. There cannot be any pigeon-holing of the role of BTV, it has to be comprehensive and living with the times. Also, it needs to come up to the standard of other democracies where the national television network enjoys autonomy by law but remains answerable to a bipartisan parliamentary committee.
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