The van was returning office after dropping home one of the paper’s IT staffs, when it was hit at around 12.45 pm, as it passed the road above the golf course area in Thimphu, near Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) building.

Suspected to be hit by stone, vehicle’s left window at the back seat and the rear window are badly shattered, pieces of which fell inside the car. Driver and another staff in the car remain safe. They immediately informed the police for investigation.

Newspaper editor Gopilal Acharya, however, suspects a stray bullet might have hit the van though police say it is not.

Acharya is also the president of Journalists Association of Bhutan (JAB).

It is the first incident of attack on press in the country. The Journalist weekly is being published by the journalists who left Bhutan Times in mass last year alleging managerial interference into the editorial matters.

Association of Press Freedom Activist is very much concerned with the latest incident on media. The attack would not only derail the morality of the journalists, but also curtails their safety and the right to information of the Bhutanese people.

The government must investigate the incident thoroughly and punish those involved in the attack. The government must also ensure safety and security of the media persons.

I. P. Adhikari

President

Date: May 14, 2020

Entitled diminutive progress, the report gives details of the media development and the constraints media and media persons faced in Bhutan and in exile. The government draft of the advertisement police and increasing management interference into the editorial contents have been noted as major threats to healthy growth of independent media in Bhutan.

Bhutan has drafted and circulated the draft ad policy, government ads to media outlets will be give based on reach and contents. The government proposes that only those carrying news about gross national happiness will get government ads while those carrying entertainment news or criticizing government will not.

Managerial interference into editorial content of the Bhutan Times weekly, government’s attempt to influence the first daily Bhutan Today and obstruction in live telecast of parliamentary proceedings are some of the hindrances observed in the report, which includes all incidents related to media between Amy 3, 2009 to May 3, 2010.

Download APFA-Bhutan full report here
Download IFJ South Asia 2009-10 report here

12 April, 2010 – An advertising firm, Druk Advertisement, has sued the six newspaper companies and Bhutan info comm and media authority (BICMA) for allegedly colluding against the firm to suspend its activities.

Druk Advertisement, which started a free circulation of an advertisement magazine in February, suspended circulation after the trade department, on the recommendation of BICMA, asked the firm to “immediately suspend its circulation”.

Thimphu district court sent its summon orders this week.

The issue sparked off in March, after the newspapers wrote to BICMA expressing their shock over the ad magazine’s license and seeking intervention.

They informed BICMA that the advertising firm was allegedly telling their clients that they were an ad agent for the newspapers. The letter to BICMA also stated that the “proprietor had come to the media houses saying he ran a publicity firm and would be collecting advertisements from his clients. He even signed legal contracts to book space for 52 inserts a year. However, after a month, his own advertisement magazine came on the market”.

BICMA then issued a notification in all media, stating that they had not licensed Druk Advertisement and that its services should be suspended, as the firm failed to follow rules and regulations.

The proprietor of Druk Advertisement, Tashi Wangyel, said that he filed the case because he did not violate any rules. “I’ve appealed for an explanation from BICMA on why my firm should suspend its activities, which aren’t illegal,” he said, adding that the trade department, after consulting with BICMA and establishing that the firm’s activities were purely commercial, gave him the license.

He said that the BICMA Act, in no way, covers advertising, but only monitoring of news and media content. “Neither BICMA nor the print media has contacted me over the issue,” said the proprietor. He accused BICMA of not being objective to solve the issue professionally.

“I suspect collusion between the newspapers and BICMA to stop my firm from functioning. I deserve to know why and, therefore, I appealed to the court,” he said.

Media officials from the newspapers said that the basis for their letter to BICMA, asking the authority to intervene, was that any publication company has to acquire both licenses from the trade department and BICMA.

“Our letter to BICMA said that the magazine doesn’t carry a single news article, nor does it provide any social value to the readers,” said one of the editors. “When the market is already tiny and the existing media houses are struggling to make ends meet, such a magazine is the beginning of the end of journalism in Bhutan.”

Meanwhile, the proprietor said that his firm had done a baseline study on the advertisement market and purview research on how effective the current advertising market was before it hit the market.

BICMA officials did not comment on the issue, saying that it was inappropriate since the case was already in court.

By Phuntsho Choden in Kuensel

Students learn journalism tricks.

While many of their friends screamed out their hearts practicing for an upcoming talent show, 35 odd students sat wide-eyed listening to behind-the-scenes stories of newspaper journalism.

Adding to the heat of a spring afternoon in Paro last Saturday, Yoserling Higher Secondary School got a feel of news gathering and writing as a bunch of journalists shared stories, brain-stormed article ideas, and practiced sentences following the ‘don’t tell, show’ rule.

The program was jointly organized by the school and Business Bhutan as part of the paper’s School Bhutan program, aimed at encouraging media literacy.

The program which started with the launch of the newspaper in September last year helps students to research, observe, and write on events happening in and around their school in a news article style. A whole broad-sheet color page is devoted to each school, where students conduct survey analysis, take photographs, interview people and write editorials and news stories. The School Bhutan page resembles the front page of the main Business Bhutan front page; thereby students can take pride in writing for a national newspaper.

Schools from across the country have already been featured in the page. The Saturday program at Yoezerling launched the second phase of the project where the Business Bhutan team interacted with students face to face.

One of the main features of the three-hour program was a segment where the school principal, Chencho Tshering, was on the interview hotseat as students shot questions.

“Why does our school logo have yellow and blue, why not other colors?” asked a student.

And the principal answered “The yellow color on the outer depicts religion and we would like to have qualities of a lama in our students and the blue stands for the vastness of the universe.”

More questions related to the birth of the school followed. The interview with principal was a part of an exercise where students got five minutes to write the first sentence of an article about the school.

Going beyond a boring afternoon lecture session, students read out their sentences, which the journalists’ team analyzed, and helped students ask relevant questions that would make their writing attractive.

“I never thought that our school logo was decided over the cups of hot water, said Thinley Dorji, a student, after the mock interview.

The session began with a brief introduction of Bhutanese media from a time when Kuensel was the only paper in the country.

“Apart from informing the nation, such initiatives are part of the paper’s social responsibility,” said Business Bhutan Editor Tashi Dorji, who led the team of journalists at the session.

“Some students’ regretted not signing up for the workshop, once they heard from their friends,” said Sherab Dema of the school’s English Department who coordinated the event.

“The session was inspiring and I fancy becoming a reporter too,” “said Kezang Wangmo, a commerce student.

The session also discussed how a newspaper works.

“How does a reporter get an idea?” was one question that intrigued most students.

To illustrate how it works, students were asked to share on a topic on which they would like to write about.

The topics included increasing crime rate in Paro, Police-Youth Partnership, youth unemployment, working students and job market challenges.

The topics where then discussed and sorted as a news article or an opinion piece. The session also shared how a general idea like ‘youth unemployment’ can be narrowed down to a specific newspaper article idea like “when employers ask job experience from Class XII graduates.”

The team also shared with the students on how to collect information for an article and the process through which an article goes: from the article idea, background information, interviews, and on how to bring in life and color to writing.

The students who participated in the event will use the techniques learnt to write articles based on school activities and the local community.

The principal said the tips on writing were really helpful.

“I have started using it in my writing,” he added.

Tashi Dorji said the session was also a learning experience for the Business Bhutan team.

“The Yoserling experience will help Business Bhutan to refine our media education program plans for schools,” he said adding that the newspaper team will always be available for schools interested to conduct similar programs.

Meanwhile the communications and education ministry has developed a media literacy curriculum which will be introduced as a pilot program in five schools across the country.

By Saraswati in Business Bhutan, March 27, 2010

The media literacy cur­riculum and teacher’s guide, which were developed in 2009 by MoIC, MoE, Royal University of Bhutan and oth­er relevant stakeholders after several rounds of consulta­tive meetings, will be imple­mented in five pilot schools this year.

Students of Khasarabchu MSS, Phuenstholing MSS, Yebilaptsa MSS, Mongar HSS and Trashigang MSS will be introduced to the new cur­riculum.

According to the Direc­tor of Department of Infor­mation and Media, Kinley T Wangchuk, the draft strategic curriculum framework was developed based on the best core skills and key concepts practised internationally for media literacy education.

The need for media litera­cy was felt due to the influx of foreign media content and rapid increase of media agen­cies in the country.

“At present, many people are not aware of the media, and there is a need for all rel­evant stakeholders to play a vital role in creating aware­ness of the media in Bhutan,” said Tshering Dendup, assis­tant media officer of DoIM.

Recognising the need to create media awareness among the public, various awareness programmes will be developed in the next few years for literate and illiter­ate people, youth, and special need groups, said Tshering Dendup.

He added that the media literacy programmes will en­able students and public to understand the media and prepare them for life in an information-based society.

The media literacy curricu­lum for schools aims to pre­pare students to be capable and skillful consumers of and contributors to the media as responsible citizens.

According to Wangchuk Rabten, curriculum special­ist of Curriculum and Profes­sional Support Division, me­dia literacy will instill skills to enable media audiences to access, critically analyze, evaluate and participate in producing media products for self-expression.

He said that the concept of media literacy or media lit­eracy education is not only to help the society understand and eliminate negative im­pacts of media messages and images but also to appreciate the role the media play in dis­seminating information and making choices in healthy consumption of the media content.

The programme will also help identify various media sources, critically analyse and reflect on different media texts, understand the tech­niques and technologies used in the media, the way the media operate, acquire skills using the media to communi­cate with others, interpret the messages and values offered by the media, and select ap­propriate media for commu­nicating their messages based on political, social, commer­cial and cultural contexts.

For the public, MoIC will develop a website which will enhance the ability of view­ers and readers to make wise choice on the consumption of media products. It will en­able the public to acquire es­sential skills of enquiry and critical analysis of media products. Audio visual pro­grammes, literacy activities, and public message through cultural programmes, posters and banners, rallies and plays will also be staged to create awareness.

By Namgay Tshering in Bhutan Observer

The founding editor of Bhutan Today, K B Lama, has recently left the country’s first daily newspaper. He talked to Business Bhutan reporter Phurba D Dorji about his experience and the print media in the country.

Q. How has the print media evolved over the years?
A. The biggest revolution in the print media was the entry of private newspapers in the country in 2006 as a precursor to democracy. The private newspapers were very enthusiastic to explore new horizons and they did.

Media has been described as the fourth arm of the government and people look up to the media with respect.

Despite having problems like the shortage of manpower and revenue, it didn’t deter the new newspapers and they shouldered their role with enthusiasm and responsibility.

Privatization led to competition and every new entrant had to come up with new and innovative ideas. For example, Business Bhutan came after Bhutan Today to cater to the business community.

Q. As the editor of Bhutan Today for the past one and half years, how was it to steer the first daily newspaper in the country?
A. Starting a daily like Bhutan Today was a very ambitious program. In fact, people always asked me, “Are there enough news in Bhutan to fill the newspaper pages?” But once Bhutan Today started publishing, we realized there were enough events taking place but the challenge was to know where and when it was taking place.

As a result, the first newspaper in the country – Kuensel – which had been in existence for the last 43 years, also decided to go daily.

Initially, when we started the paper, the team broke their teeth into it. The whole team contributed a lot to taking out publications daily. We stayed late into the night preparing for the next publication everyday and had to be back for the daily meeting in the morning the next day.

Everyone was very dedicated although one may say that they were not as good as expected. I think it was because the reporters were just out of college and needed some time to grow.

Q.  Why did you leave Bhutan Today?
Well! Journalists, in general, are not as free as they should be. The proprietor or the owner always has the upper hand about how he runs the news company. This basically leads to a compromise in the quality and output and of course restrains journalists from giving in their best.

Q.  Can you give any particular example?
With the introduction of new people in Bhutan Today, I thought it was not fair that the employees of the old team were given notice to leave the company as it has happened to some reporters. I think the management should have taken some time and evaluated them. The management could have set up specific goals and sacked them if the employees failed to achieve the set goals.

Q. What do you plan to do next?
I have come to the end of the road as far as Bhutan Today is concerned but this doesn’t mean end of the journey. There are yet more things in life to be exploited. At the moment I am happy working around my farm house at Jemina (an outskirt village in Thimphu).

Source: Business Bhutan

Soon, newspapers with more contents of gross national happiness (GNH) and other national priorities may land up getting more government advertisements than those who run posters of Hollywood actors and give “rubbish” news.

The secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC), Dasho Kinley Dorji, made the statement with a question: “Why would the government be obligated to serve papers with rubbish news?”

He made the statement in the wake of the government trying to come up with an advertisement policy which would provide a guideline for government agencies to give their ads to the appropriate media.

The ad policy will largely be based on the findings of a circulation audit that will be conducted for all local media organizations by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) based in Mumbai, India. While the audit is on, ABC will also be training Bhutanese on the field.

Dasho Kinley Dorji said the circulation audit would encourage advertisers to focus on quality and the content of the paper, which would be the most important part in giving out the advertisement to the media.

The audit will reveal the circulation figures and the reach of the six newspapers, four radio stations and one television station in the country. It will also study the print run, distribution figures and the actual sale of newspapers. All these information can then be used by advertisers to direct their ads to the media that reache the target audience. “Advertisers should know which media reaches the targeted audience and the circulation audit will help them find that out,” said Dasho Kinley Dorji.

He added that government cannot continue distributing ads to all media houses equally as it entails a huge cost on the government budget. He had said earlier that ads cannot be given as “kidu” to media houses.

Ads are the main source of revenue for the media and 80% of the ads in the market today come from the government. With media organizations complaining about sustainability in the past, the government had issued a circular to distribute all government ads equally to all the media.

Because of the circular, there were instances where government agencies ran out of their ad budget before the end of the year. Dasho Kinley Dorji said such a practice cannot continue and deserving media houses should be getting the ads.

Dasho Kinley Dorji said all media organizations, whether old or new, have to compete with each other for ads which will be determined by the circulation audit.

It has however drawn scepticism that the circulation audit will in advertently favour old players in the market, like Kuensel in terms of newspapers which was established by the government in 1967 under full subsidy.

The opposition leader, Tshering Tobgay, in his blog said, “I’m concerned that the ‘circulation audit’ will be used to formulate an ‘advertisement policy’ that would excessively favour government advertisements for media agencies having a bigger reach.” He also said that the government “should also consider the amount of subsidies that have already been given to Kuensel and BBS.”

The editor of Bhutan Observer, Needrup Zangpo, said the concern is valid. He agreed that among newspapers, Kuensel will have the biggest circulation and thus the biggest reach and the audit will only authenticate it. “The private newspapers will lose out to Kuensel and that is why the original proposal for an ad policy came from Kuensel.” However, he agreed that the circulation audit is the only way to move ahead as it is necessary.

The executive chairman and editorial advisor of Bhutan Times, Wangcha Sangay agreed that Kuensel will always have an upper hand if such an audit is conducted. He added that if the circulation and the reach of a media house govern the outflow of government ads then the print media may lose out as the reach of radio and television is greater than that of newspapers.

The editor of Kuensel, Phuntsho Wangdi, said “It won’t make much difference, as the media scene in our country is changing rapidly.”

About the concern, Dasho Kinley Dorji said the circulation audit is not to benefit any particular media organizations and added that it will be a service to the society to ensure that the right media carry the right information to the people. He added that the circulation audit is not a new trend and is conducted all over the world.

After the ad policy is in force, Dasho Kinley Dorji said government agencies will have to budget out their ads according to the number of ads they have in a year.
(Business Bhutan, January 23, 2010)

Photo: BBS

January 14, 2009: The bone of contention in the proposed Civil Service Bill, 2009, that had already been passed by the National Assembly in the last Assembly session is exclusively on Chapter 4 of the Bill. Some of the media practitioners say that two clauses are in variance directly with the Article 7 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan under ‘Fundamental Rights’.

The Civil Service Bill 2009 could not be passed since it was characterized by confusion as some contradicting points were resolved with a simple majority in the last National Assembly session.

BBS approached some of the civil servants for their views on the Civil Service Bill, however, none of the civil servants wished to speak on the matter.

Two particular clauses under Chapter 4, ‘Duties and Rights of civil Servants’ in section K says that the Civil Servants should “maintain confidentiality of all facts and information discovered in the course of the duty, both while in service and after separation from service.”

Section Lof the bill dictates the civil servants “to refrain from expressing any adverse opinions against the Royal Government”.

Speaking to BBS the Secretary of Ministry of Information and Communication, Dasho Kinley Dorji said: “Restricting the civil servants from freedom of speech is certainly not a wise thing to do. The concerned persons who have come up with the bill obviously need to re-think and re-discuss these two clauses. However, what we should also understand is, there will be certain things which the government will not want to reveal to the public solely for security reasons.”

BBS also managed to gather the opinions from the various print media houses and all of them had their own reservations about the Bill.

“I am not happy with the bill; however, it is a tricky situation because no ministry or an agency will want to speak anything against their own organization,” said Tashi P Wangdi, Chief Editor, K4 Media.

According to Needrup Zangpo, Managing Editor of Bhutan Observer, about 90% of the information that media get is from the civil servants. “If this Bill becomes and Act, it would further bottleneck necessary information we will need to service our society. For an instance, ministries like health strictly adhered to maintaining confidentiality of the information, there as it is no professionals outside the health ministry who could provide us with substantive information,” he said.

Ugyen Penjore, Managing Editor, Kuensel, said: “Specifically on the clause (K), this is not right for the government to restrict its civil servants from maintaining confidentiality of all facts and figures, since such a practice could ultimately lead to corruption and injustice.”

However, the Bill will be put up in the upcoming National Council session to pass as an Act.

(From BBS)

Many things that are not allowed according to the BICMA rules are perfectly legal and even accepted in some parts of the world.

Not to say that this means that our rules are overbear­ing. After all, laws should be custom-made just like de­signer clothes, for no two countries are exactly the same, just as no two people are exactly the same.

To achieve a perfect fit, what is needed is good mea­surement. In our case, it would be a matter of learning as we go, formulating new laws as we discover new wrongs that we, as a society cannot accept.

Drawing the line between what is simply not accept­able, and what certain groups consider as an affront to the society while it is really not any of their business is a tricky business, though.

While we would not accept pornography in our media, no question asked, it is legal in some parts of the world. It is a variance of what is acceptable and what is not to us as Bhutanese.

The Bhutanese media, so far, has an understanding of the society’s acceptance level, although nonconformists have attempted to test their audience’s reception now and again with especially bold releases, sometimes earn­ing the rebuke of BICMA.

Still, if ever some of our prominent personalities en­gage in a fistfight, even though this would interest the public, it is understood that it is not in the interest of the public to know about it.

Raising eyebrows on risqué content is different from naming certain things illegal, however. There is a need for the government to look seriously into the issue of freedom of expression, and there is a need for it to include it in this discussion, prominent journalists of Bhutan, at the very least.

The question is also the motive behind the regulation on media content. If the motive is protecting the audi­ence, then BICMA is attempting the feat of a caveman fighting the mammoth single handed, with stone-age weapons.

The volume of content the internet throws up on a dai­ly basis is like the mythical monster, the Hydra, which kept growing new heads every time one was chopped off. Meaning that fighting the internet content is truly a Herculean task. Add to that the millions of books that enter the country, the magazines, the radio and televi­sion content which cannot be cut to taste, only, perhaps, banned, if found not conforming to the rules.

If, along this line, BICMA decides to regulate interna­tional media, the present content rules would mean that very little books, television and internet would actually see the light of the Bhutanese day.

Take for instance, the international bestseller and many Bhutanese readers’ favourite book, ‘The Godfa­ther’, which would violate the BICMA rules of content in terms of explicit sexual content and violence.

But again, having a different set of rules for interna­tional media would mean accepting double standards.

The rules of content only serves to keep a trace of dignity in the local content at the moment. It should fall upon the media house to maintain that trace of dignity that the authorities are trying to inoculate, in the end. And it should fall upon the adults to monitor the kind of media that their children are exposed to.

We cannot have a system that allows only those con­tents that are suitable for children, simply because their parents might not keep them away from content that is unsuitable to them, but available.

(Bhutan Today editorial, January 9, 2010)