Lack of media professionalism and sustainability of media houses are some of the challenges confronting the Bhutanese media, according to the latest Media Impact Study Report 2013.
The report was released today by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
Unbalanced and urban-centric media coverage, limited media literacy and education programmes among the public, were some of the trend in media pointed out by the report.
The report has come up with a set of recommendations. It says the media houses in the country should prioritize initiatives to enhance media professionalism through implementation of more focused and coordinated approach to human resources development. It also talks about exploring advertising market other than public sector’s advertisement.
The recommendations also include broadening and accelerating media literacy and public education programmes.
“The fact that media is a reflection of our society. We would like to be proud of our media. We would like to be comfortable that media is reflecting the Bhutanese society in accurate sense. Not misleading anyway…” said the Information and Communications Secretary, Dasho Kinley Dorji. Dasho said this is a huge responsibility that falls on individual journalists.
Dasho Kinley Dorji also said that when social media came into being, the role of journalists was challenged. But what was put on social media was mostly rubbish.
“In fact forget professionalism, there was lack of decency in many cases. Therefore the need for professionalism is also in social media, in digital world. So journalists have to continue to be journalists.”
Bhutan Information and media impact study is conducted once every five years. The first information and media impact study in Bhutan was carried out in 2003.
