When the media turns into evil Sunita Paul - 6/8/2008 Media can play important role in up building a nation, while the same media, being influenced by evil forces or vested interest, could turn into devastating element for any nation. Take the example of Bangladesh's leading media group named Transcom Media, which owns a vernacular daily newspaper named Prothom Alo, an English language daily named The Daily Star, two periodicals named Shaptahik 2000 and Anandadhara. Recently the group has acquired ownership of an FM radio station named 'Aina Broadcasting Corporation' (ABC). The group is rather known as 'Daily Star Group' in Bangladesh, because of tremendous influence of its English language daily as well as its top most position amongst all competitor dailies.
Before going into notoriety of Daily Star group, let me first put focus at the back ground of the emergence of this business-media group. During early nineties, present owners of 'Star Group' turned financially bankrupt when its main figure Latifur Rahman's paternal property W Rahman Jute Mills at country's Chandpur district had to declare lay-off thus leaving thousands of workers and labors unemployed. Numerous cases were filed with the Chandpur district labor and criminal courts against Latifur Rahman and other members of the factory, as they defaulted payment of worker's wages. On the other hand, W Rahman Jute Mills was listed as one of the top defaulting enterprises with Bangladesh Bank (Central Bank) for long standing loans.
But, luck started moving in positive direction, when Latifur Rahman's wife's cousin Anup Chetia (leader of ULFA separatist group) came forward with hidden help of finance in businesses in Bangladesh through Rahman. It is learnt that a few million dollars were placed with Latifur Rahman in re-organizing his collapsed business and ULFA kept a secret stake of shares in all businesses initiated by Latifur Rahman after receipt of this secret fund.
Latifur Rahman understanding his failure in running industrial enterprise profitably launched a company named Transcom, which began businesses as the sole distributor of Nestle brand milk products in Bangladesh. Initial response although was very poor from the local market, due to solid financial back up from ULFA, Latifur Rahman managed to ultimately penetrate in the business and in few years, Transcom emerged as one of the mightiest enterprises in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, when Dhaka's well respected journalist S M Ali took the initiative of launching an English language newspaper, Latifur was suggested by ULFA to buy shares, as such investment would buy media influence for the separatist group, which fights against Indian government in separating seven North-Eastern states within India.
S M Ali was successful in placing Daily Star at the forefront of Dhaka's English press, because of his extra-ordinary qualities and courage. Just in few years, this newly launched newspaper sub sided most of the competitor dailies such as Bangladesh Observer, Bangladesh Times (now defunct), New Nation, Morning Sun (now defunct) and Financial Express. But sudden demise of S M Ali opened the opportunity for Latifur Rahman to swallow the newspaper. He brought Mahfuz Anam as the editor of the newspaper, who subsequently ousted ancestors of S M Ali and grabbed his shares. This was the beginning of notorious journey of Daily Star group.
Later, when Anup Chetia was arrested by Bangladeshi law enforcing agencies, Latifur Rahman stopped paying any share to ULFA. This was the first beginning of feud between notorious ULFA separatists and Latifur Rahman. It is widely rumored in Dhaka that, ULFA had hidden hands behind murder of Latifur's daughter Shazneed Rahman, who was brutally raped and murdered right inside her residence at Dhaka's posh Gulshan area.
But, the handsome investment from ULFA, gave Transcom an excellent opportunity to grow. Latifur decided to launch a vernacular daily newspaper with the initial capital of 10 million Taka in 1997. Prothom Alo recruited large number of top newsmen from Dhaka's press community. It also had dynamic Matiur Rahman as its editor, which helped the newspaper to rapidly turn into one of the leading dailies in the country. Later two vernacular periodicals were also launched by this group, one with celebrated journalist Shahadat Chowdhury as its editor.
In some years, Transcom group acquired ownership of Pepsi, Phillips and several large industrial enterprises. Luck always clicked in favor of this business group, as far as its investments in media was concerned. None of the newspapers, belonging to Transcom group had ever faced any financial adversity.
Due to such influential ownership of media projects, Latifur Rahman got the excellent opportunity of continuing various illegal businesses including import of goods from abroad under false declaration. Several consignments imported by Transcom were stopped by customs officials in Bangladesh and evidence of revenue evasion of millions of Taka was unearthed. But, everything was managed, by using the influence of Prothom Alo and Daily Star. Even after the political changes in Bangladesh on January 11, 2007, Daily Star group managed to send its Executive Editor Syed Fahim Munayem as the Press Secretary to the Chief Executive of the interim government. Even at later stage, when Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) issued notice on Latifur Rahman asking declaration of his wealth and assets, the entire issue was some how put into suppression with the help of Daily Star-Prothom Alo group.
Everyone knows the news about cracks in Jamuna Multi-purpose Bridge in Bangladesh. But, possibly no one knows the fact that the main reason behind such cracks was due to use of a particular brand of cement, which in the name of Portland Grey Cement is in fact fly ash mixed lowest grade cement. And, this inferior quality of cement went into various high cost projects in Bangladesh just because; chairman of the company producing and marketing this brand is none but Transcom's Latifur Rahman. No one in the government dares to utter even a single word about Holcim, which supplied such cement to various projects, as they are afraid of wrath of Daily Star and Prothom Alo. Despite the fact that, both the newspapers are largest in circulation in Bangladesh, main purpose of these publications is serving the interests of Corporate Crime.
Prime intention of Daily Star group is to stand against various business groups, whenever there is any business rivalry with that specific company or individual. This group went into heinous propaganda against Beximco Group, Bashundhara Group and many others in past. There is even clean track record of dubious behavior of this group is sabotaging various projects in Bangladesh, with the ulterior motive of either supporting businesses of Latifur Rahman, Transcom or members of this syndicate.
Many projects were already sabotaged by this group, thus causing tremendous loss to Bangladesh's economy. The latest episode of such rivalry of Daily Star group was with Bangladesh's lone hard rock mining project at country's Dinazpur district. Maddhyapara Hard Rock Mining Project (MHMP) became a pray of Daily Star for past several years. It is learnt that, some vested interest groups, including importers of stones and stone-chips from India, Myanmar and Malaysia are patronizing such media terror by Star, thus attempting to sabotage country's most prospective project, which not only is already saving millions of dollars, but, also is set to turn into a huge prospect of earning millions of dollars from export of world-class Granite Tiles.
First rivalry with the MHMP began when Bangladesh government appointed Polish consulting firm Kopex SA, defying the fact that this firm had no experience of hard rock mining. It is learnt that, appointment of this Polish firm was a result of heavy persuasion from some high level corrupt bureaucrats in the Energy Ministry and Petrobangla. From the very appointment, the Polish consultant had been frantically trying to sabotage the project for reason unknown.
In June 2006, Kopex SA submitted a paper with the Energy and Mineral Resources Division saying, "Maddhyapara Hard Rock Mining project has become 'virtually sick' and the employer (the government) has suffered huge financial loss."
It said Petrobangla and the project authorities, Madhyapara Granite Mining Company Limited, should ask Nam-Nam for final commissioning and test production immediately to ascertain the actual status of mine development.
"The Petrobangla and MGMCL should take over the mine after ascertaining its actual state and on documentation to establish the legal ownership of the mine," it said.
Kopex said, "The Nam-Nam has complemented major installation of the mine in over 12 years but they have not yet done the final commissioning and test run although the original development period of the mine was 6.5 years since the signing of the agreement between Petrobangla and the company in 1994."
Sources in Petrobangla, however, ditched the Kopex report, saying that the consultant should also be held responsible for the delay as it failed to come up with proper plan.
"Kopex also wants to be involved more with the mine for which it came up with such a report," Petrobangla source added.
Meanwhile, on October 15, 2005, The Daily Star published a front page news item titled 'North Korean company looks for legal coverage to finish task'. In this report, Daily Star said, "When completed, the Maddyapara hard rock mine will commercially sell 1.65 million tonnes of granite a year. The country annually imports 3.4 million tonnes of granite. Local production will save between $38 million to $58 million US dollars. The project has a life span of 45 years. However, the price of Maddhyapara granite will not be cheaper than the rocks that are commonly imported from India because of the increased project cost"
It was clearly understood that the report was published with the very intention of killing the project to protect the interest of importers-exporters syndicate, which enjoys business of millions of dollars every year by continuing to import stone from India and other countries. In this report, Daily Star claimed that the cost of production of MHMP hark rock was higher than imported one, which is nothing but a clean deviation from truth. It is learnt from dependable sources that, production cost for each tons of hard rock from Maddhyapara project stands at US$ 10 while the minimum import cost is US$ 22.
On May 18, 2006, Daily Star once again published a front page report titled "Petrobangla to take it over from DPRK firm", where it repeated the same lie on the price of the locally extorted hard rock. It said, "Maddhyapara granite will however not be cheaper than the rocks that are commonly imported from India because of the increased project cost."
Nam-Nam Corporation successfully completed and handed over the project in May last year and meanwhile; commercial production in the project is already going on. Due to timely steps taken by the present government in Dhaka, locally produced stones are purchased and used in various domestic projects on priority basis, while the cost of local stones are more than half the cost of imported ones. Being totally frustrated at the completion of the project, vested interest groups once again managed to published another front page report in The daily Star on May 16, 2008 titled "Miner now wants return of non-existent loans".
In this report, Daily Star wrote, "Nam-nam is now operating the mine with 65 South Koreans under a one-year service contract due to expire on May 27. As it did not fully transfer the South Korean technology to the MGMCL, it will get yet another year's service contract, the sources said."
This part of the news shows two things. One, the reporter knows nothing of the project but was writing thing being dictated by vested interest groups. In the same news, while the reporter said Nam-Nam is a North Korean company, how he could discover 65 South Koreans in the project (does he lack the minimum knowledge that North and South Korea do not have any diplomatic relations as yet?). The reporter also said that, Nam-Nam is not fully transferring South Korean technology to MGMCL. Ridiculous, who edits and passes such rubbish news in Daily Star? Being Dhaka's leading dailies, it should be ashamed of such poor journalistic quality. The entire report as well as all previous reports is part of propaganda and conspiracy to kill the entire project, which stands as the most prospective one for Bangladesh. Anyone can easily understand that, vested interest groups, including enemies of North Korea are patronizing such dangerous campaign not only to sabotage the project, but, also to give a good lesson to the North Korean company for being dedicated and helpful to Bangladesh is saving millions of dollars from import of hard rock.
Bangladesh government not only needs to patronize this extremely profitable and viable project, but even needs to go into fresh negotiations with Nam-Nam or the North Korean government in signing fresh agreements for exploration of more mining projects in the country. According to mining experts several more hard rock mines are already existing in the Northern region of Bangladesh, which will be able to help the country in stopping import of stones from abroad, thus saving billions of dollars each year. At the same time, government needs to identify vested interest groups within Energy Ministry and Petrobangla in order to not only protect the national interest but also to punish the culprits for their notorious roles.
Further harassment of the North Korean company will earn bad reputation for Bangladesh from the potential foreign investors. Nam-Nam deserves to be appreciated for completion of the MHMP despite series of harassments and non-cooperation from the Energy Ministry and Petrobangla. http://www.globalpolitician.com/24880-media
Syed Siful Alam Shovan
shovan1209@yahoo.com
--- On Mon, 8/18/08, Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Isha Khan <bd_mailer@yahoo.com>
Subject: [bangla-vision] Nine TV channels earn 602 crore taka in six months
To: dhakamails@yahoogroups.com, notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com, alochona@yahoogroups.com, zoglul@hotmail.co.uk, rehman.mohammad@gmail.com, bdresearchers@yahoogroups.com, mahmudurart@yahoo.com, khabor@yahoogroups.com, rivercrossinternational@yahoo.com, bangla-vision@yahoogroups.com, sonarbangladesh@yahoogroups.com, rezwansiddique@yahoo.com, farhadmazhar@hotmail.com, shahin72@gmail.com
Date: Monday, August 18, 2008, 10:35 AM
| Nine TV channels earn 602 crore taka in six months
Corporate business houses are now controlling private TV channels, pouring in cash for commercials. In fact, it's the advertisements that are given priority, depriving viewers of quality time for programmes.. . by ANWAR PARVEZ HALIM There are now a total of 10 private satellite television channels in the country. These are NTV, Channel i, Channel 1, ATN Bangla, Ekushey TV, Boishakhi, Bangla Vision, Islamic TV, RTV and Diganta TV. Of these, Diganta TV is now operating on a test basis; the others are regular.
These private TV channels are surviving on advertisements of multinational companies. With more than adequate advertisements coming in on a regular basis, two or these of these channels are now firmly established in the field.
Critics and researchers say that because they are so dependant on these advertisements, these private TV channels have become the tools in the hands of the multinationals. The corporate houses virtually control the TV programmes. They use the advertisements to twist the arms of the channels. Sometimes the advertisements come at such regular intervals and for such extended spans of time, the viewers get fed up. The channels really have no choice; they don't even really worry their heads about it. Since their hands are tied by the advertisers, they simply accept the terms.
Whatever programmes the advertising company wants to sponsor, are the programmes the channel management will telecast. They can hardly pick and chose at their own volition. In fact, the corporate houses reportedly even dictate who the presenter of a programme will be, which actors and actresses will feature in a drama and even who the director will be.
Soumitra Shekhar, teacher of the Bengali Department at Dhaka University, carries out research on the language of television programmes as well as advertisements. Speaking to PROBE, he says, "Previously, once a programme was made, a sponsor would be sought and there were only a few commercial breakers per programme. But things have changed radically. First sponsors are fixed and only then are the programmes made, according to the wishes of the sponsor. So naturally, the advertisements feature most importantly. The programmes are only of secondary importance."
Researcher Soumitra Shekhar points out that in a programme's chunk of 30 minutes, nine minutes go to advertisements, two minutes to the titles, three minutes to the recap, leaving only 16 minutes for the actual programme. The nine minutes of advertising bursts into the 16-minute programme about five to six times at least, much to the viewers' frustration. In fact, it is the advertisements that have more of an impact on the viewers' psychology than the programme itself. That, of course, is the intention of the multinationals. They sponsor the programme, after all, to publicise their product.
A viewer may be watching a talk show on TV. Advertising has infiltrated here too -- on the coffee mugs in the guests hands, on the banner in the background are so on. After every few minutes, the anchor calls for a break, a commercial break.
Ideally, the duration of an ad should be 20 seconds at the most. However, most of the ads here are anything from one to one and a half minutes. It is as if you are watching a documentary or a short film! The talk show pales beside all that glamour, song and dance in the commercials.
It has been noted that at the prime peak house, a 30-minute news programme has only 16 minutes of solid news. Of this, one minute goes to the headlines and two minutes for breaking news headlines. There are two breaks in the news programme, meaning that the advertisements take up 14 minutes during these breaks. Then there are the advertisements with the sports and business news: "Now, Partex Sports News," or "And now it's time for Mercantile Business News." And the inevitable ads of the sponsors. Business news is only for 25 seconds for which the company pays 25 thousand taka and that is in exclusion of payment for the advertisement itself.
Viewers have long nursed grievance against the TV channels for shirking their responsibility towards the viewers and "selling their souls" to the corporate houses in exchange for crores of taka in ads.
Farid Reza Sagar, Managing Director of the country's first private satellite television channel, refutes such allegations. He tells PROBE, "We are surviving because of advertisements. If five mobile phone companies shut down today, we will see the closure of 10 TV channels. Satellite TV channels will not be able to survive without advertisements. As for the viewers, they are getting to watch the channels for free. These are not pay channels. In fact, the viewers do not have to pay for any of the local Bangla channels."
Soumitra Shekhar has complaints about the language used in advertisements, dramas and other programmes on TV. "There is a marked lack civility in the language used," he says. "The language of the advertisements, dramas and programmes are downright obscene. They pass off uncouth language in the name of regional dialect. Proper language should be used on national media. In the name of modernism, a certain section of writers and directors who have sprouted up in recent times are corrupting the language. Director Mustafa Sarwar Faruki, Anisul Huq and others are responsible for this, completely in the hands of the multinational companies. So money is changing our language too. Protests are drowned out by cash."
Nine TV channels earn 6019 million taka in six months According to a survey run by Ryan Archives, a private media monitoring organisation, nine TV channels of the country, including BTV, raked in revenue of 6019.54 million taka in the first six months of the year from advertisements of various companies. NTV secured the highest amount of 975.02; BTV the lowest with 281.99 million taka. Channel i got 971.46 million taka worth of commercials; ATN Bangla 908.66 million; Channel 1 780.06 million; Ekushey TV 613.14 million; Boishakhi TV 528.09 million; RTV 516.45 million and Bangla Vision 444.67 million taka.
In the six months from January to June this year, nine TV channels including BTV, earned a total of 2089.3 million taka from mobile phone companies alone. These mobile phone operators include Aktel, Banglalink, Citycell, Grameen Phone, Teletalk and Warid Telecom. Channel i got the highest amount of advertisements from them, amounting to 402.71 million taka; BTV the lowest -- 47.47 million taka. ATN Bangla got mobile phone ads worth 313.84 million taka; Boishakhi 229.01 million; Bangla Vision 158.88 million; Channel 1 256.49 million; Ekushey TV 156.24 million; NTV 313.11 million; and RTV 211.55 million taka.
While they may be pouring in millions of taka for their commercials, the mobile phone operators are not providing quality service to the customers. While the subscribers have innumerable complaints against the mobile phone services, the TV channels have nothing to say on this head. They never report against the cell phone operators.Another study shows that in January this year, nine TV channels secured 840.90 million taka worth of ads. In June they secured ads worth 1195.45 million. That means there was a 42.16% increase in ads over the six-month period.
Top 10 advertisers According to Ryan Archives' monitoring report, Grameen Phones tops the list of the Top Ten advertisers on the nine TV channels in the first six months of the year. They doled out advertisements worth 888.78 million taka. Next comes Unilever Bangladesh with 755.99 million taka in ads. Third on the list is Banglalink with ads of 552.05 million taka. Next are Pran Group 414.98, Citycell with 363.42 million taka in ads; Square Group with 219.89 million; Warid Telecom 196.59 million; Globe Soft Drinks 170.03 million; ACI 138.11 million; and Nasir Group with 106.03 million taka worth of commercials.
Ryan Archives collated this data based on the advertisement rate charts of the companies. The question remains as to how accurate this estimate of earnings through advertisements actually is. In reply, Ahmed Hasan (Jewel), proprietor of Ryan Archives, tells PROBE, "Since this data is based on the rate cards of the channels, it cannot be considered absolutely accurate. The TV channel authorities sometimes have package deals with the advertisers and the rates of the commercials are brought down through negotiations. The rates fluctuate."
He continues, "Peak hour for TV constitutes six in the evening till midnight. And the news and dramas are telecast at prime peak hours. Normally, no concessions are given in the rates of advertisements screened at peak and prime peak hours. Instead, the channels offer the advertisers a bonus. As many as the advertisements they pay for at the peak and prime peak hours, the channels offer a bonus of an equal number of ads at low rates during off peak hours."
BTV still has the highest number of viewers. However, BTV gets the least number of advertisements from the multinational companies. The reason for this is the ad rates. BTV does not offer any concession on the set advertisement rates. It pays the ad agencies only 15% commission on the fixed rates. On the other hand, as the private TV channels are ready to negotiate, the commercials come pouring in.
Commenting on the data provided by Ryan Archives, Channel i Managing Director Faridur Reza Sagar says, "The credibility of such data based on rate charges is questionable. "
He says, "In a competitive market, the channels give all sorts of concessions. However, the ad market is must better than before. We are getting an adequate volume of advertisements. ATN Bangla, NTV and Channel i get more advertisements than the others. That is why the standard of our programmes is also better."
The next question that arises is whether the private TV channels are paying due income tax to the government against the crores of taka they are earning through the commercials. In this regard, Faridur Reza Sagar says, "The advertisement market has expanded over the last eight or nine years only. This is still a new area and so there may be certain discrepancies. This is only natural."
He adds, "Channel i, however, is absolutely transparent in this regard. We are accountable to several authorities. There is the Regulatory Board and there is NBR. You can check with them."
Inquiries revealed that Impress Telefilm is enlisted with the Large Taxpayer Unit and regularly pays taxes and VAT.
A certain official of NBR, on condition of anonymity, informs PROBE that according to government rules, 4.5% in taxes and 15% VAT has to be paid on private advertisements. But this fluctuates in the case of a series of advertisements. He admits that the NBR, due to its inadequate manpower, cannot keep an accurate record of advertisements being aired on the TV channels. He is also aware that there are many behind-the-scene deals between the advertiser and the channel management. It is not possible to get an absolutely accurate figure concerning the revenue earned by the channels though ads. So tax and VAT is imposed on the annual income of the TV channels. This official feels that the channels do not really pay the tax and VAT in correct proportion to the revenue they earn through commercials.
Slump in business over The slump in business after 1/11 is over and things have started to look up. "This is evident by the amount of commercials being aired by the private television channels," says Ahmed Hasan Managing director of Ryan Archives. He points to records which reveal that, in January the private TV channels aired advertisements of real estate companies amounting to only 9.59 million taka. In June the advertisements of these companies leapt up to 39.55 million; that is an exponential 312.17% increase. In June, the real estate companies ranked at No. 7 in the list of Top ten advertisers. That month the earnings of nine TV channels went up by 42.16 per cent as compared to January. Ahmed Hasan feels that is increase in advertisements on TV is because of an overall improvement in business. In conclusion The expansion of the electronic media is certainly a feather in the cap for Bangladesh. However, this success is put into question when it comes to evaluating the quality of programmes being churned out by the private TV channels. There is a disheartening volume of sub-standard programmes with the invariable commercial breaks at regular intervals. The viewers simply surf through the channels looking for shows with substance and end up settling on some foreign channel. Who is to blame? The irresponsibility of the local TV channels or the crass commercialism of the multinational companies? Ad revenue of Channels (Jan-June 08) in mln Tk
Jan 840.90
Feb 901.76
Mar 1,016.70
Apr 1,025.71
May 1,039.02
June 1,195.45
Total 6,019.54
Growth from
Jan to June in parcent (%) 42.16 | |