Do the private TV channels fulfil citizens’ aspirations?

Dr. Syed Nesar Ahmad Rumy :
Television is one of the modern electronic amenities which disseminate information to the people and it is also one of the carriers to spread culture and education to the common people of the country. It is also one of the wonders of 20th century’s scientific inventions in this world. Before television, radio was the main mode of getting information which could disseminate information to the common people. We know Marconi was the inventor of radio but as well as we also know Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose was also one of the contenders of this invention. In our country radio was introduced in the late thirties of the 20th century. Most probably PTV Dacca was the first TV station started in 1964. It started functioning from DIT building (now Rajuk building). Maybe the station was the first such station in this subcontinent.
After independence television became popular among the middle class and before that very few people used to enjoy this wonderful device for amusements and information. During mid-seventies some TV sub-centers were established in some places in the country and those are Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna and Natore. And in this way TV programs were telecast through terrestrial technology. So a major area of the country came under TV coverage in this way in the then time. It is also important that private radio station and private TV station concept were not focused in then time. The only one government TV channel existed and that was BTV Dacca. The programs would not be telecast round the clock. The broadcasting time was 4 p.m. to 11.30 p.m. midnight. News, dramas, cultural and sports items used to be telecast in the then time.
Day by day television became a part of our regular life. People enjoyed many live programs during seventies of last century. Among those are popular football matches, boxing of legendry boxer Muhmmad Ali, Japanese aircraft hijacking at Tejgaon airport in Dhaka and many other important national and international events. In the late seventies and early eighties some English serial movies were very popular among the youngsters. Those serials were Hawaii 50, Six million dollar’s man, Bionic woman, Kojack, A-team, Roots, Wild Wild Waist and many mores. The youngsters got amused to enjoy those movies and serials. And it was almost a craze in that time.
Before mid-nineties BTV was only one television channel in Bangladesh and people had to see the BTV programs and News. But BTV was also an instrument of government propaganda. Whether one liked it or not he had no other alternative to switch over another programs. But another development started in that time in the electronic media world and that was Bangladesh had entered into the cable TV era. In this way sky had become open to all. Different channels from neighboring country entered our electronic media world. People also started enjoying Al Jajeera, BBC, CNN news channels. But in this time one thing came to the forefront to the people of Bangladesh and that is cultural aggression from different channels of neighboring country. It turned a very big concern of the then time and the intelligentsias of the country started talking against that cultural aggressions. In fact that cultural aggression is still going on.
In this circumstances ETV a private channel evolved in the media world in Bangladesh. Within very short time it became very popular and attracted huge number of audience. A group of young and energetic persons joined and worked in ETV. Especially the news of the ETV attracted people much and the content and pattern of the news was much more realistic and closer to events happened in the surroundings. In this case the government TV channel was lagging behind of ETV. Gradually the quality and content of BTV deteriorated much.
Later a good number of private channels started functioning. A considerable number of people started liking the programs and contents of private TV channels. But this good time could not continue long. Gradually many unseen pressures from different powerful quarters started and the influential people became the owners of many new private TV channels. In this situation it became very tough to the reporters and news editors to show their independent, creative and credible attitudes. The situation was so that they had to compromise with their independent attitudes and it became a reality. Still now that trend continues.
Now the reality is that the reporters and news editors always think about the after effect of news prepared by them and it seems they are passing their days with one kind of self-censorship process. Initially there was no hard and fast rule to regulate the private TV channels from the appropriate authority’s end. But day by day new laws and acts are being passed and these initiatives squeeze the independent attitudes of reporters and news editors. Up to the mid-nineties there was only one government TV channel functioning in the country and that is BTV. For their not universal TV reporting and news content people used to call it “Box of Shahib and Bibi”. And that news used to serve only the purpose of party in power. Now the situation is so that most of the private TV channels have turned them like BTV the government channel. And it is very hard to differentiate them from BTV particularly of news content. But we people do not like to see private TV channels as like as BTV. We really like private TV channels complimentary to the aspiration of the common people. Hope those days will come soon.

(The writer is former Civil Servant).