Media reforms: Likely remedies for problems facing Bangladesh Press

Corporate ownership of news enterprise is the latest among the modes of media ownerships in Bangladesh, as also elsewhere. This ownership pattern, offering lucrative pay-and-perk packages to journalists, emerged in an evolution spanning a few centuries. This one also seems to have run a full circle--and the entire media stand at a crossroads. A very recent shutdown of an English daily owned by a corporate house stands as an eloquent evidence.
Media reform is one of the five priority areas of restructuring Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus has spelt out in briefing to diplomats on the mandate bestowed upon the interim government installed through the August-5th changeover brought about by a student-mass uprising of its own kind. It has already been deemed imperative as many journalists and sector employees have been jobless or underemployed following a mushroom growth of newspapers and electronic and online media, and the closure of a number of those.
Standard upgrade and bringing discipline in the field are another must-do, now that a spirit of change is fresh in the air all around. Which way to tread in doing this onerous job calls for an indepth study of the ground situation and sustainable remedies.
During a universal anatomy of what have gone wrong, questions have cropped up over patterns of media ownership and an indiscriminate emergence editorship, too. Latest global expert views are that media ownership is trapped in vicious circles as means of attaining political influence and promoting business interests. What if so? A hybridization of ownership can be tried, on a limited scale to begin with. Part public, part private by way of a state entity partnering with a reputed corporate or offloading shares on the capital market may be an option on the cusp of transition to be set off through the reform the newly formed media commission is undertaking.
Public-private partnership or PPP is a latest development paradigm followed in many economies for implementing projects and industries. This is a way of exerting checks and balances in market economy against monopoly, oligopoly, syndication and other deviations through absolute private ownerships in all ventures.
Opinions have it that much of the crisis, recognised by the past government functionaries also, through the aforesaid market manipulations could be averted in Bangladesh. Also is there antitrust law applied in capitalist America and socialist market economy of China alike to prevent over-concentration of wealth through such unethical business practices.
The Press is not an ivory tower amongst the things around, in the economy and society. So, journalist unions and many journalists and media employees speak of deepening problems in the 'industry' and seek a durable solution. There is no denying that some of them who are in abject hardship benefit from the government-formed welfare trust. But that's very temporary succour.
A disclosure by unions last year that 70 per cent of the newspapers couldn't', or didn't', pay Eid bonus and other due payments on the occasion of the festival indicates far deeper problems. Hushed-up agonies are heard from not very few at tables at the Jatiya Press Club. Furthermore, the rest 30 per cent also included those who made part payments. Soul-searching and solution-seeking seem urgent.
Illustrations and probable ways out could be as follows: Until the independence of Bangladesh, the Press under private ownership had played a praiseworthy role fundamentally because of patriotic zeal and, principally, common greater goal. Even journalists working in government-owned media outfits worked much in the same spirit through innovative byways.
After almost an unfettered freedom following the nation's victory in the freedom fight in December 1971, as history shows, an era of trust papers/press dawned in journalism. The trust papers had struggled for survival after the revival of the private-sector Press, but eventually failed to prove their worth. Golden handshake was the nemesis (needless to go into details).
This time around, a new genre of the Press evolved under private ownership: corporate media. To start with, newspapers began coming out from big business houses. New dimensions were added to the developments on the front with radio and television licensing under the private sector. A number of corporate houses owned all modes of the media: print and online newspapers, radio and TV. Many journalists found well-paid jobs. But it didn't prove an unmixed blessing.
The critics now point out the flip side of the media boom. They say big businesses have big stakes that need establishment's blessing to thrive. ''So, journalists working there have to take, willy-nilly, a tip from the owners in news reporting and publishing (in some cases, though),'' says a common observation.
Of course, there had been few efforts by professional journalists to bring out newspapers, but most of them lost out to big-budget media entrepreneurships. Some little-known persons in the profession have taken declaration of both English-language and vernacular dailies, but couldn't publish those or are running somehow. Some others also took TV licence. Some of those were sold out to business groups while others were looking for financiers, reports say.
In the process of what is called a random boom of the media, hordes of job-seeking youths were drawn into the profession. In the meantime, the corona pandemic and lockdowns had hit hard the industry, as also other sectors of livelihood. The crisis, by a conservative account, rendered jobless around 1,600 journalists with ramifications of effect on thousands associated with and dependent on them.
The journalist unions are mentioning in statements that it was happening in two main ways: retrenchment and closure of newspapers. ''Many of those who have retained jobs are suffering from salary backlog or cuts,'' said a DUJ statement.
As such, some of the union leaders and others active on the Facebook were calling for creating good media entrepreneurs so that journalists could work with desired freedom and in compliance with journalistic ethics.
Such crosscurrents of views are coming in an exponential chain of reaction over the role of the Press following some high-society incidents that stood the pressmen (journalists) against a rear-view mirror. Loads of comments are coming from two diametrically divided streams within the community.
One former top union executive suggested strengthening the Press Council. That's one way, an important one beyond doubt. From a train of thoughts and virulent accusations and counter-accusations-- sometimes bordering on smear campaigns relating to journalism and the journalists a good many of whose merit and qualifications are not so easy to weigh-- it is understandable that a holistic remedy is imperative to right the wrongs with the mass media. Many significant issues are also being raised, in the changed context.
The modalities of changes could be like this: if to empower the Press Council, it has to be vested with both quasi-judicial and executive functions to (a) deal with all journalism-related cases through summons process and not warrant process and (b) newspaper declaration and conduct of operation.
For instance, to substantiate this proposition it can be mentioned that Bangladesh Bar Council conducts the licensing and governs the profession of lawyers. The judiciary is a vital organ of the state. And press is the fourth estate as a state pillar. The Public Service Commission solely does the function of recruitment to the executive. Who governs the medical profession? It's Bangladesh Medical and Dental Council.
Correcting the flaws is imperative for both sides: the journalists and owners on the one hand and the government on the other. The former are facing trouble for a lack of discretion and lapses in adept dealing with ethical dilemmas, in some cases, while the latter may be thinking that 'bad press' could be straightened through what are dubbed 'draconian laws', as is said to have happened in the pasy. In the end, some unhappy happenings are being made external issues of press freedom.
In this context, it is being felt that upgrading the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) with eligible faculties may help by way of foundation training of beginners and higher courses for mid-career professionals in journalism.
The most important suggestion, as mentioned above, is creation of 'good entrepreneurship' for the print and electronic media as well as the Johnny-come-lately online news-portals. How to do it is a moot question.
The ownership patterns shown above in the evolution process were found wanting, and led to what is being seen as a crossroads. Public-private partnership or PPP is a latest development paradigm, as mentioned above. If newspaper, mass media for that matter, is an industry, then a new model of PPP could be tried.
A fusion of trust and corporate ownerships may help create such media PPPs. And as already mentioned, the government has instituted a trust for journalists. It now hands out financial assistance to journalists in distress and register for such cash aid from the trust fund. Well, it meets temporary needs of those who get. A greater good may be attained if adequate funds come to the trust from the exchequer and the trust partners with reputed corporates to bring out some newspapers both in Bengali and English languages with proven qualified journalists and recruits. These newspapers (and TV channels, too) will work as models of quality Press for others. The others who will fail to catch up with the standards to be set by the PPP media will perish in the evolutionary process.
This way, it is presumed, the freedom of the Press and of journalists at work could be secured too. The former Press types had mirrored contemporary sociopolitical, economic and cultural ethos. The proposed new ones can be brighter mirrors of society.
Press freedom is a major global issue, and the media in regimented countries also are being allowed qualified freedoms to hold those in authority to account for their deeds. In the socialist China, in particular, newspapers, like China Daily, nowadays run reports on irregularities on part of public functionaries and administrative bodies.
Press freedom is generally curtailed with two types of curbs on it: institutional restrictions and predatory intimidation. Gutter press hangs as a predatory outgrowth on the mass media as a whole.
Tolerating 'stream of consciousness' can be one promoter of 'free flow of information' on the information superhighway in free societies. It's information age: information is wealth, motive force of advances. Most super-rich of this era bank on information communications technologies. Free media may be a boon for the baddies, too. Monopolies, duopolies and oligopolies in trade and commerce take the tips from the media too, as do consumers in making choice.
Neither of the two sides--the Executive and the Fourth Estate--is deemed at ease as such.
Much of the mismatch can be crystal clear from the frank confession by the main man at the institute meant for Press improvement and journalist rearing through training. "...We could create lot many media but failed to create journalists," he was quoted as saying.
What could be the wayout? In short these could be the dos--for a win-win situation for all parties concerned.
• Public-Private Partnership or PPP in news-media industry through trust-corporate joint venture
• Upgrade and empower the Bangladesh Press Council with judicial/quasi-judicial authority to deal with all journalism-related cases and newspaper/media declaration and cancellation.
Journalist unions and many journalists and media employees speak of deepening problems in the 'industry' and seek a durable solution. There is no denying that some of them who are in abject hardship benefit from the government-formed welfare trust. But that's very temporary succour. A soul-searching and solution-seeking seem urgent.
The previous ownership patterns in the evolution process were found wanting, and led to what is being seen as a crossroads. The most important suggestion being made as such is creation of 'good entrepreneurship' for the print and electronic media as well as the newcomer online news-portals through PPP in a fusion of trust and corporate ownerships.
News has its grammar, too, as has its language--Bengali or English. For neglecting grammatical rules, a sort of anarchy is evident in much of the mass of English writings being churned out every day. News writing and editing and makeup also expose anomalies for not going by the rules.
Social media boom and electronic media mushrooming largely without grooming news crew with academic learning and hands-on training in definition, language, style and structure of news lay bare shortcomings which are stuffs of discussion in conscious circles of the media world itself.
-The new media law mooted by the past government should be titled 'The Journalists and Media Enployees Services Act' with a guarantee clause on claim settlement through labour-court adjudication.
There had been a demand that the The Cyber Security Act should be amended thoroughly or be annulled. All journalism-related cases ought to be disposed of through the proposed upgraded Press Council. In a latest development, the incumbent interim government has decided to annual the cyber-security act.

Moslem Uddin Ahmed is Consultant Editor at The Financial Express and former Editor (acting) of The News Today.
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