Bhutan has scrapped its plan to license private television channels in the country. Both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Information and Communications said the issue of sustainability is behind the decision.
Prime Minister Lyonchhen Dasho Tshering Tobgay cited examples of Bhutanese private newspapers that are struggling in stay in business. “The owners have had to take loans to survive,” he said.
Fearing private television channels would meet the same fate, Lyonchhen said the government decided it would be a bad idea to allow them.
The prime minister added apart from the companies that applied for a TV license during the previous government’s tenure, there have been no new applicants.
The discussion about private television surfaced in the question hour of the National Assembly yesterday.
Panbang MP Dorji Wangdi, who raised the question, said establishing private television would harm the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS). He expressed fears that it would hinder BBS’s efforts to fulfill its main mandate of providing fair and balanced programming.
