No where in histories we see absolute rulers letting the media run freely. In a surprising attempt to keep regime’s direct influence in media sector, coinciding with his 30th birthday anniversary, the young oxford-graduated king of Bhutan, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, issued a royal kasho (charter/decree) formally establishing the Bhutan Media Foundation in the [...]
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Posted in News Analysis on 25 February 2010
The Earth Ox year was not very good for Bhutan Times, as the paper made headlines with the resignation of its founding managing director, a financial crisis and a mass resignation of the editor and six reporters who accused the management of editorial interference.
It seems the beginning of the New Year also doesn’t seem very [...]
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Posted in Media Monitor on 05 January 2010
November 7, 2009: Two weeks after the mass resignation in Bhutan Times, the media regulator, Bhutan Info-Comm and Media Authority (BICMA) is taking up the issue and said things will be decided by its board meetings.
The BICMA has hinted that it will make interrogations with K4 Media, another private company which is now taking up [...]
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Posted in Media Monitor on 07 November 2009
Kathmandu, October 29, 2009: The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has said it is alarmed to learn the mass resignation of journalists from the Bhutan Times, after sharp disagreements on editorial process and content with a newly appointed chief executive.
In a statement, the global trade union of working journalists, said ownership of Bhutan’s first privately [...]
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Posted in Media Monitor on 29 October 2009
New chief for Bhutan Times weekly
October 10, 2009: As the financial crisis deepens in the first private newspaper of the country, Bhutan Times, its managing director and deputy managing directors have resigned from the post last week.
Giving farewell to MD Tenzin Rigden, the publication house has received Wangcha Sangey as new MD. The chairman of [...]
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Posted in Media Monitor on 11 October 2009
Despite indirect censorship on media, the elected government for the first time arranged for media awards to various journalists as gesture to inspire for better journalism on Sunday
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A Bhutanese journalist working with a weekly newspaper published from Thimphu said it would be too early to say that Bhutan has press freedom even after the country adopted constitution and changed its politics from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy last year
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After much speculation, the board of directors of the Bhutan Times, the first private newspaper of the country, has decided that Chief Executive Officer of the paper Tenzin Rigden will continue in the same position
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Posted in Media Monitor on 16 April 2009
The Bhutanese media is on the footstool of a ‘great big leap’. After the initial baby steps, its bold strides have arrived to mixed reverberations of awe and applause to disgust and dread. It is perhaps time for deep soul-searching for the direction of the Bhutanese media. This ominous void is an invocation of a [...]
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Posted in Commentary on 28 March 2009
Bhutan Times has cut of its 15 employees out of 80 in its bid to sustain with the squeezing markets and downsizing return from the market
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Posted in Media Monitor on 07 March 2009