Mission Report – Steve Buckley

Bangladesh, 8 – 12 July 2008

Summary

AMARC Asia-Pacific, in partnership with Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and
Communication (BNNRC) organised, on 9 July 2008 in Dhaka, the roundtable “Ensuring
Growth of Community Radio in Bangladesh: Removing Barriers, Increasing
Effectiveness”. The event was supported by Katalyst and UNESCO and attracted around
90 participants. A separate report of the proceedings has been prepared by AMARC Asia-
Pacific including a follow-up Plan of Action.

Following the roundtable, the AMARC President stayed in Dhaka for a further two days
for various meetings with civil society organisations, donors and the media. This included
dialogue with BNNRC, Bangladesh Centre for Development Journalism and
Communication (BCDJC), Bangladesh Federation of Unions of Journalists, UNDP, FAO
and the World Bank. Media interviews were provided to Ekushey TV (late night chat
show) and New Age (a daily newspaper). A meeting was also sought with the Secretary
of the Ministry of Information but they were not available during the visit.

Country context

Bangladesh has been an independent state since 1971 after seceding from its union with
West Pakistan. After 15 years of military rule, democracy was reinstalled in 1990. The
last parliamentary elections were held in 2001. In January 2007, planned elections were
suspended and a military backed caretaker government was installed with the stated goal
of reforming the political system and rooting out corruption. Leaders of the main political
parties - Bangladeshi National Party (Khaleda Zia) and Awami League (Sheikh Hassani)
– were imprisoned together with other activists. The BNP leader, Khaleda Zia, remains in
prison. Parliamentary elections are now scheduled to take place in December 2008.

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated and poorest countries in the world.
More than half of the 153 million population live on less than a dollar a day. The country
suffers cyclones and flooding during the monsoon season and droughts at other times.
Being mainly low lying and close to sea level it is highly vulnerable to global warming.

The political environment is volatile with political violence widespread in the period
before the present caretaker government. In 2006 attacks and threats to the media were
common from both government and opposition supporters as well as extremist groups.
Since the caretaker government was installed the situation has been calmer and safer for
media workers but self censorship is widespread, criticism of the military-backed regime
is not tolerated and several media outlets and talk shows have been closed or suspended.
There is no broadcasting law for either the state broadcaster or for independent media and
broadcast licensing and regulation rests directly with the Ministry of Information. The
state broadcasting services – Bangladesh TV and Bangladesh Betar (radio) – are
essentially a mouthpiece for the Government. Private television stations include NTN,
ATV Bangla, Ekushey TV, RTV and Channel i. There are four private commercial radio
stations - Radio Today, Radio Foorti, Radio Amar and ABC FM - all based in Dhaka.

A consultation draft of The Right to Information Ordinance 2008 was approved on 4

March 2008. The Act is due to be approved in July 2008 and to come into force shortly
afterwards. The Act will provide citizens with a statutory right of access to information of
public interest however the draft includes a broad range of exceptions and the openness
obligations do not apply to legislative, judicial and constitutionally established bodies.

Community radio status

There is no community radio broadcasting at present in Bangladesh however advocacy

for community radio has been led by BNNRC, and others for more than 10 years and has
recently achieved an important breakthrough under the caretaker Government. On 16
March 2008, the Government announced the Community Radio Installation, Broadcast
and Operation Policy 2008. The Ministry of Information very rapidly invited applications
from organisations interested to establish community radio, with a deadline of 15 April
2008. This was extended, in view of the high level of interest, to 30 April 2008. Some
400 application forms were requested and 178 applications were received by the
deadline. It is expected that around 50 community radio stations will be permitted, with
agreements to broadcast on a pilot basis for a period of two years. The announcement of
the successful applications is expected to be made in July.

The community radio policy has a preamble and eight substantive sections. It has a clear
and strong definition (section 1) and its description of the fundamental principles of
community radio (section 2) is largely consistent with international good practice
however it is somewhat prescriptive towards programme content and it limits
programming to “not go beyond the community’s cultural or historical heritage”.
“Political, sectarian or doctrinal” programming is prohibited. Eligibility criteria (section
3) require that the organisation applying for a licence/permission must be a Government
research institution or development organisation, or a non-governmental development
organisation that is a legal entity or registered with the NGO bureau, having at least five
years of operation and involved in poverty alleviation or in the media and ICT sector.

The licensing process (section 4) is based on a comprehensive application form. Selection

of applicants is to be made by a Regulatory Committee on the basis of assessment and
recommendation of a Technical Sub-committee and taking account of advice on character
of the applicant from the Home Ministry and on the probability of attaining a frequency
from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Only one
licence may be granted per applicant and the service must be set up within one year of
approval. There is an initial licence fee of 20,000 Tk (286 USD) and a deposit required of
100,000 Tk (1429 USD) which is non-returnable in the event the service is not launched.
The technical provisions (section 5) allow some flexibility according to need but specify
a coverage range of 17km radius and transmitter power up to 100W (exceptionally up to
250W). Antenna tower should not exceed 32 metres but may also be exceptionally
exceeded to better cover sparsely populated areas. Antenna gain is limited to 6dB.

Programme content restrictions (section 6) are widely drawn. In significant respects these
exceed the legitimate limits on freedom of speech recognised in international law and
standards and could limit the effectiveness of community radio in promoting good
governance. Of particular concern are a ban on “aspersions against the dignity of the
State and Government” and on any content that “criticizes other countries” or that
“criticizes... any individual in person or any group or segment of society in the country”.

Section 7 sets out a number of additional provisions concerning programme content

obligations, ownership, management and accountability arrangements, station security
and sanctions. These include legitimate and welcome requirements to establish a
management committee with community involvement, to promote equity and social
justice, to provide training and capacity building for the community and to facilitate and
promote community participation. This section also contains some provisions which limit
the independence of the community broadcaster and/or may have a chilling effect on
freedom of expression. Of particular concern are the role of a local advisory committee
consisting of representatives of local authorities (District and Upazila1 levels), the police,
various central government departments and the state broadcaster; a requirement to carry
Presidential and government speeches, special programmes of Government and the state
broadcaster and speeches of local government officials; and a requirement to employ an
armed guard (“armed Anser”) whose “concerned police station shall submit a monthly
report to the government stating if any anti-state broadcasting have been carried out”.
There is also a prohibition on “political broadcasts” which may limit the effectiveness of
the community radio in promoting free and fair elections by not giving equal airtime to
different political parties, especially when government broadcasts must be carried.

The monitoring arrangements are further set out in Section 8 in which the role of the
Advisory Committee is described as including to “monitor the community radio station
activities in regular basis and submit a confidential report to the Ministry of Information
per month”, to provide suggestions based on the strengths and weaknesses of the
community radio station broadcasting, to encourage the participation of Upazila level
government officials in the community radio programmes and to provide counselling to
improve the quality of programmes. The radio station is also required, on a monthly
basis, to submit to the local authority a copy on CD of all broadcast programmes.

Despite the many concerns with the community radio policy, BNRC consider the
immediate priority is to move forward within this framework to establish some actual
operating community radio services. They anticipate that the policy can be improved later

1
Upazila is the term for sub-district, an administrative area with a population of around 300,000 and which
is generally anticipated to be the minimum typical coverage area for a community radio service.
on during the experimental period when there is real experience to draw upon. Some of
the roundtable participants prefer more immediate and vigorous criticism of the policy.

Sector needs and priorities

Community radio in Bangladesh is set to commence from a standing start. There are no
community radio stations at present and little experience of actual operating community
radio. Advocacy organisations have run an effective and successful campaign to achieve
the community radio policy and have developed a conceptual knowledge of the sector
through international visits, publications and reports but almost nothing has been done to
build local capacity to operate community radio. Awareness of the community radio
policy is reasonably good among Dhaka based NGOs as a result of a sensitisation
campaign and media coverage and this is reflected in the large number of applications
submitted by the 30th April 2008 deadline. On the other hand awareness at community
level is low, especially among the target communities of poor and marginalised people.

Several observers commented that implementation of the community radio policy is at

risk of being a largely top down process driven from the supply side by established urban
NGOs assisted by external donor aid, rather than a bottom up process, demand led by
community-based organisations with a sustainable local social and economic strategy.

Given that applications have now been submitted and are awaiting approval and that no
further opening is planned at least until later in the year, the immediate priority is to work
with and promote models of good practice with the successful licence applicants in the
first phase of community radio development. This should include strengthening
grassroots engagement and strategies for the early embedding of ownership by local
communities and community-based organisations. A first step, immediately after the
decision on the applications is announced would be to undertake a baseline study of the
relevant communities and their priorities, local demand and interest for community radio,
and the community engagement and technical support needs to establish the services. A
baseline study would also underpin long term impact assessment and evaluative research.

A second priority is to promote mutual support, good communications and networking

among the successful first phase applicants and including other stakeholders, NGOs and
community-based organisations that aspire to be involved in subsequent phases of
development. A national network or association with a broad and inclusive remit would
fulfil this role and could carry forward the advocacy work that will be needed to improve
the community radio policy in the future in the light of actual operating experience.

Alongside these initiatives is the need for a concerted training and capacity building
effort at all levels – community engagement, station management, programme making,
technical development and maintenance – and the provision of technical and other
support services including a help desk and specialist guidance and support on call.
Women are under-represented at all levels of decision making in Bangladesh, including
the NGO sector and a priority should be given to support women led community radio
projects and to promote the equal participation of women in community radio.

International knowledge sharing and exchange could make an important contribution

through external study visits and placements - especially to Nepal due to its proximity
and depth of experience and know how – and through international volunteers visiting
Bangladesh to work with community radio projects at the development stage. A selection
of relevant international “how to” guides could also be usefully translated into Bangla.

In addition the partners have identified the need for some strategic investment in the new
community radio services at development stage, especially in the case of good grassroots
projects that do not already have access to investment through existing partnerships.

As the community radio services prepare to come on air it will become valuable to
support the development of good quality development content on key issues such as
climate change, agriculture and food security, water management, women’s rights and
other issues. Partnership with relevant specialist NGOs and training in thematic content
production would increase the capacity to achieve early impact in these and other areas.

Follow-up

AMARC has followed the community radio developments in Bangladesh from the
earliest stages of lobbying and advocacy but the roundtable in Dhaka is the first in
country event that AMARC has partnered. An objective of the event was to contribute
towards a Plan of Action for community radio in Bangladesh, work which is being taken
forward now by the local partners. It will be important for AMARC to also follow up this
event with further practical measures of support and assistance. This should be in done in
collaboration with our local members and partners and with other stakeholders that have
supported the sector such as UNESCO, UNDP, UNICEF, Cordaid, Danida and Katalyst.

Of immediate importance to AMARC's engagement must be to promote and encourage

recruitment of additional members in Bangladesh, especially among the first licensees to
be announced shortly. This could be supported by translating introductory material and
membership information into Bangla and by setting up a Bangladesh portal to the
AMARC website similar to those that have been set up for Nepal and Indonesia. The
local partners have indicated they would support and assist such an initiative.

AMARC can bring added value to community radio development in Bangladesh by

promoting and supporting knowledge sharing at the sub-regional level, especially with
India and Nepal, and including exchanges for people engaged at grassroots level as well
policy makers, NGO activists and public officials involved in policy implementation.
Travel costs within South Asia are relatively low but with donor support it may also be
possible and beneficial to bring experienced community radio activists to Bangladesh
from countries further afield such as Indonesia, Australia, Europe, N America etc.

AMARC can also assist in extending the knowledge base for community radio
development in Bangladesh by identifying key resource materials such as "how to"
guides and supporting their translation into Bangla. This should include discussions with
UNESCO about translation of the UNESCO Community Radio Handbook and the
UNESCO technical guide "Community radio: A User's Guide to the Technology".

AMARC might also assist in mobilising resources for other priorities identified above
such as the implementation of a baseline study and needs assessment of the first licensees
and their target communities (UNDP expressed interest in supporting this); research into
business planning and sustainability models for community radio in Bangladesh
(potentially of follow-up interest to Katalyst); and the suggested Community Radio
Development Fund which might be developed as a regional or sub-regional initiative.

//

Meetings, interviews and documentation

Meetings

AHM Bazlur Rahman, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
Mainul Islam Khan, Bangladesh Centre for Development Journalism and Communication
Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Bangladeshi Federation of Unions of Journalists
Ahmed Swapan and Farjana Akter, Voice
Meena Munshi, World Bank
Mario Acunzo, FAO Communications for Development
KAM Morshed, Assistant Country Director, UNDP

Interviews

Kaberi Gain, Ekushey TV – late night chat show

Sanam Amin, New Age – daily newspaper

References

Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy 2008

<http://www.bnnrc.net/resouces/CommunityRadioPolicy2008English.pdf>
State of Press Freedom in Bangladesh (reports from 2006 to 2008) (BCDJC)
Community Radio: Rural people’s access to information (BNNRC)
Review of Community Radio Policy in Bangladesh