There is a general feeling among the government officials that media is being vindictive, focusing mostly towards the bad content. Some officials even go to the extent of saying that good contents are deliberately left out.
Media is mostly focusing on the stories that put them in a bad light, say some of the senior government officials. These include some of the ministers and senior government officials. At the meet the press last month, Prime Minister along with some of the ministers pointed out instances where media have been irresponsible.
“There are also, I think, cause for us to believe that certain aspects of the information, that would easily have been available to somebody who has done the research on this case has been deliberately left out, leading one to believe as to what the purpose and did real intension of this particular case might have been,” said Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley.
The Minister for Works and Human Settlement, Yeshey Zimba, said it has become a habit that most things are reported in bad way.
“The situation often gets heightened because of the selective dramatisation by some of the papers,” said Thakur Singh Powdyel, Minister of Education.
But how true is that? BBS talked to some of the senior journalists of the media houses. Many disagreed that media is only focusing on the bad stories, but some agreed that sometimes officials do have some basis for making such comment. However, they added that it will differ from one media house to another.
“I think that’s only to be expected, sometimes the comments have no basis to it, may be because the paper or the media is deliberately try to project them in a bad light but in some cases when you actually just think about what you have done, sometime there is basis to it, because whatever media covers, there will be slant to it, maybe there is no balance,” said the Editor of Kuensel, PhuntshoWangdi.
The Editor of Bhutan Observer, Nidup Zangpo, said it might not be true. “It will depend on how they look at our news stories,” he added. “We do negative stories but often people tend to oversee positive stories because negative stories are often to the government officials or to the people in power, so they tend to see in the different light from the media.”
The Chief Executive Officer of The Bhutanese, Tenzing Lamzang, said that by doing such kind of stories, people are informed about what is happening. “Therefore people who are abusing power will think ten times before doing that.” He argued that the media is covering only bad stories. “I think media is maintaining a healthy balance and it’s good for democracy. It also shows media is free.”
They added that in terms of news, they always maintain balanced reporting.
A media consultant, who has done research on the media situation in Bhutan, Khampa, said it is the duty of the media to act as a watchdog.“It becomes an apparent duty of media houses to actually root out what’s happening inside our society. Basically what I am saying is, if there is anything wrong going on in our society, I think it is the responsibilities of the media to put a proper check on that.”
Is Bhutanese media credible? Some of the people thought that media is doing fine while some said sometimes media overdoes it. “Of late, media have been covering very sensitive issues highlighting our elected leaders’ involvement in corrupt practices in the past,” said Kuenga Lhendup, adding that while these issues were important but might create mistrust between the government and the people.
Many refused to comment on this issue.
Is this an issue of serious concern? It is indeed a universal trend with the media that bad stories make more news than the good ones. But, whether these stories are reported in a fair, balanced and accurate manner or not need to be ascertained by the news makers and news consumers.
