Journalism can thrive in a digital world!
THE theme of this year's World Press Freedom Day, Journalism thrives! Towards better reporting, gender equality and media safety in the digital age outlines a few of the issues related to the role of contemporary journalists and media in our societies.
It recognises good journalism with high editorial standards reflecting a diverse range of voices and enjoying strong legal protection as an indispensable part of an open democracy. It does so whilst also alluding to the challenges facing the sector today even though digitalisation offers unprecedented opportunities for freedom of speech.
Exploiting the potential of digitalisation to transform society and the economy are key policy objectives of the Government of Bangladesh. Through its digital Bangladesh agenda, the government is working to increase access for communities to crucial new tools, information and services. With better access to government information and services, citizens and the state can potentially revolutionise how they interact and communicate with each other.
Bangladesh's national digital portal that currently aggregates data from 25,000 national and local government offices receives millions of hits a week and is helping bring public services closer to communities. Detailed instructions, explanations of customer rights and an opportunity to submit complaints related to 400 critical government services from land issues to safety nets and agriculture are all now easily accessible because of digital technology.
There are over 5,000 digital centres across all local government institutions to ensure universal access to these services including the poor. Over four million citizens access vital information monthly through these centres. The potential to expand accountability by increasingly embracing the right to information in departments combined with these digital windows and physical access points is unprecedented.
Together with the Prime Minister's Office the a2i programme supported by UNDP and USAID is continuing to invest in the future of these services which have cut waiting times and the costs of accessing government services by up to 90 percent in some service areas.
Whilst the government is seeing increasing successes in its digital policies, how best to ensure journalists and media continue to thrive in these digital spaces is a crucial question. Whilst digital offers exciting prospects it is important to recognise that realising a vision of a healthy digital environment requires a balance of credible actors developing in these spaces with diverse sets of critical voices and tools reflecting the diversity of society.
Digitalisation offers revolutionising tools to the journalism and news businesses and can encourage media producers to innovate opening up new opportunities for journalists to explore the world we live in and build new relationships with audiences. These have the potential to create exciting new initiatives empowering audiences and linking societies together in novel ways.
Creative and vibrant journalism, whether off or online, however, requires an equally vibrant media environment and the past year has seen some serious challenges to this space. Globally in 2014 a total of 118 media professionals were killed reporting news stories according to the International Federation of Journalists. A further 221 of their colleagues were imprisoned and many more were forced into exile, threatened or physically assaulted.
Here in Bangladesh no single event encapsulates the challenge of violence against freedom of speech more than the tragic murders of two bloggers in separate incidents in 2015.Whilst these attacks have quite rightly encouraged a discussion on freedom of expression and speech it is equally important to recognise that these incidents happen within the context of the wider environment.
In the past year Bangladesh's position has declined one place to 146 out of 180 countries listed in the press freedom index of Reporters Without Frontiers. We have witnessed incidents of harassment and intimidation of journalists recently, including of a woman journalist in Dhaka in March, and we have seen general pressures rise on the mass media as the first part of this year witnessed an escalation of political violence.
An early draft of a broadcasting policy too added to the general lack of consensus around how to improve the conditions for journalists and the media.
Given this backdrop for digital Bangladesh to fully exploit the potential of the digital revolution it is essential media is able to share this digital world and an enabling environment framed in forward looking policies has a key role in shaping this relationship.
It is perhaps here policymakers can send out the strongest message regarding ambitions for the digital media of the future. A policy to encourage quality and independent journalism in both analogue and digital worlds in a secure environment will set a benchmark for media professionals and send a clear message to those that threaten freedom of speech in the media.
Lessons from around the world suggest when a legislative environment is strongly framed in freedom of speech protection media professionals are more creative and produce better journalism and they are able to contribute more to a society.
Regardless of whether this is writing for a local newspaper, on television or radio or online, good journalism requires journalists to seek stories in the real world, and if the legal framework defends freedom of speech and provides a safe, diverse and free environment for reporting, then the journalism that results is nearly always better.
A modern broadcasting framework highlighting freedoms rather than restrictions is a starting point and can be a strong statement of intent by stakeholders to continue to build a quality media sector.
The writer is Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme.
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