‘The govt did not shut down foreign channels, only foreign commercials’

Shutting down of foreign commercials does not mean the government has asked all foreign television channels in Bangladesh be shut down. The government has made the decision based on the Cable Television Network Operations Act 2006. If any foreign channel wants to broadcast its contents in Bangladesh, it will have to broadcast the contents without showing its commercials. If the foreign channels broadcast their contents without commercials, then we do not have any problem. 

We, the Broadcast Journalist Centre (BJC), also agree with the government's decision which is consistent with the 2006 law. This is not a sudden decision as the law was formulated almost 15 years ago. 

Some days back, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Hasan Mahmud warned that from 1 October the government will not allow any foreign broadcaster to show its commercials in the country. They will have to provide "clean feed". The government began to implement the law accordingly from yesterday. 

Broadcasters use distributors and cable operators to broadcast foreign channels across the country. The cable operators do not  have anything to do in this regard. Even the distributors have nothing to do with it. Only the broadcaster can give us clean feed. 

As long as they continue giving us content with commercials, the cable operators cannot show their content because the government said that they will not be able to show the content with commercials. 

I do not think that the government should wholesale stop all foreign satellite channels across the country. Apparently, some television channels like HBO and Cartoon Network have also been shut down. If any channel that does not broadcast commercials gets shut down, I would say that is a wrong decision and may have been done mistakenly. There should not be any obstacle to a channel that provides us with clean feed.  

It is true that the standard of Bangladeshi content has gone down recently. This clearly is a result of a lack of income. The only way to generate income for us is through advertisement. If Bangladeshi and multinational companies continue to give commercials to foreign channels, it will be hard for us to generate revenue and improve our content in the future. 

Contrary to popular belief, the government has not stopped all the foreign channels from broadcasting in Bangladesh. It has only asked that they broadcast the channels without commercials. It is the responsibility of the broadcasters to comply with the law. 

Some television channels were kept shut for a few days, in the past, for the same reason.

Local companies will redistribute the commercials that have been airing on foreign channels. I am hopeful these commercials will come to Bangladesh. I think that our viewers will increase if the foreign channels remain in this state. One channel will be in competition with another and as a result, the content of our native channels will improve. 

Rejoan Haq is the president of Broadcast Journalist Centre