Complacency

A senior foreign journalist who interviewed several Bhutanese had many good things to say about Bhutan and Bhutanese, but she noted a troubling and deep sense of complacency.

It is this sense of complacency that has landed us in all kinds of troubles from mass migration to Australia to the US Red List to now rapidly falling Press Freedom rankings.

For more than a decade, media houses and journalists have been shouting from the rooftops about media sustainability, media attrition etc., but the policy makers while listening and reading, did not pay heed.

They pointed to Bhutan’s post democracy media freedom rankings bump as proof that all was well.

Now, the same rankings are finally exposing the deep problems in the media sector as a whole.

It can be said that after democracy every democratic institution from the Parliament to Constitutional bodies has gotten better, bigger and more seasoned, but the reverse applies to the media.

As documented by this paper, the problem started from 2010 onwards with cutbacks in advertisements and austerity measures sharply reducing government advertisement. E procurement has made matters worse as while the system is a reform it does not make sense on why it denies construction tender advertisements to the media.

Policy makers refused to understand and recognize that the source of all the problems in the media today stem from sustainability, and the cause of the decline of the media is not some great mystery, but it is simply the cutback in government advertisements.

While everyone has taken a hit the impact has been the strongest on the private media which has reduced in numbers and size. The RSF report in the context of Bhutan specifically mentions the struggling private media and cuts in government advertisements.

The complacency can also be seen in the very limited improvements in accessibility to information.

There is also a frustrating ‘penny wise and pound foolish,’ attitude to the whole issue.

The system is happy saving some millions in advertisement budget at the cost of decimating the entire media industry. Tall promises were made of ESP funds for the private media last year but nothing is coming through.

Media is important not just for good governance and internal check and balance, but it also has external implications.

There is a very good reason why the small Gulf nation of Qatar spent so much money building up a credible and Editorially strong Al Jazeera and even bore a blockade from all its Arab neighbors to keep Al Jazeera on air.

The media of any country, no matter how critical or independent domestically, will always advocate for the national interest at the international stage. It, even if unconsciously, is a natural force multiplier, especially for a small nation.

In recent times Bhutan has come under a barrage of international attack from various sources, but our depleted media is in no condition to give the Bhutanese perspective or narrative.

The media now has an even more important role to tell the Bhutan story and encourage investments in the country but, here again, a feeble media can only do so much.

Meanwhile, the system will keep cutting advertisements and resources down to the bone and media houses will be told to adapt to ‘market forces.’

“Complacency is the enemy of progress.” – Dave Stutman