Survival challenge for Bhutanese media
As in the previous years, I tried to be as comprehensive as possible to include all stuffs in this report related to media in Bhutan. There might be some misses, comments are welcome.
Rays of hope for a better-informed society was not clear in Bhutan during the year-under-review. Despite democratisation, Bhutanese government remained reluctant to allow a free press to operate independently. Specifically, the government was not resistible to critical news stories about the government and the ruling party.
Media-government relations remain strained until the elected government dissolved.
Survival challenge for private media clung to the top of the list with government imposing secret ban on public advertisement to those media who are critical of the government. Even after revelation, the government hasn’t publicly withdrawn its secret-killing mission. This has negative impact on working journalists who remain unpaid for several months.
Right to Information bill and proposals for new private TV channels dominated the public discourse. Bhutan Information, Communication and Media Authority (BICMA) stalled the process of issuing license for TV channel at the last hour without giving satisfactory results.
Public accessibility to media remains very low. Private and public media are urban centric. Radio (Kuzoo FM and BBS Radio) rules the rural life.
Social media appear more effective and influential, but still urban centric.
Read the complete report here