The Bhutanese Leading the way.
In recent times there has been much discussion of a Nu 40 mn figure of subsides allegedly given to the private media in the past decade.
However, the Department of Media Creative Industry and Intellectual Property (DoMCIIP) clarified that the 40 mn subsidies figure is not just for the private media but also includes funding for training government officials, ICT officials, content grants for all media houses including state owned media, radio and free lance journalists, training of journalists from both private and state owned media.
In fact, only a portion of the Nu 40 mn was given directly to the private media, above what others got.
A DoMCIIP official explained that from 2011 to 2021 a total of Nu 50 mn had been budgeted for media development cutting across plan periods of which Nu 39.7 mn had been spent by 2021.
The money was spent on 11 workshops, seminars and conferences organized by DoIM for various purposes for all kinds of people, 28 short-term trainings by DoIM and 9 short-term trainings by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources in ICT and media which includes people outside the media, 11 long-term trainings by MoLHR in ICT and Media Field. The media above would include state owned media.
A substantial amount was spent on DoIM and other officials going on a study tour of Singapore and Thailand to study the Press Club and media there.
The Nu 3.417 mn was spent on content grant for state owned media, private media, radio and free-lance journalists from 2016-18.
Nu 340,000 was spent on digital audio recorders for all 9 print media houses at the time.
When it comes just to the private media Nu 700,000 worth of content grants were given in 2018-19 for rural coverage and Nu 400,000 worth of a laptop and printer each were procured.
Then the figure from the DoMCIIP till 2021 also includes around Nu 7.5 mn in printing subsidy and the MEDB.
The above figures from DoMCIIP show that of the Nu 39.7 mn spent from Nu 2011 to 2021 only around Nu 8.5 mn was given exclusively to the private media houses by excluding others.
The rest were spent on government officials and meetings, ICT training for ICT officials, some trainings for all media including state owned media and some content grant for all media houses, radio stations and free lancers.
After 2021 and separate from the Nu 39.7 mn figure explained above, the private media got the MEDB in four installments for the financial years 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 coming to Nu 16.8 mn.
All in all, if the exclusive support for the private media, above others, is looked at from 2011 to 2025, a period of 14 years, it includes Nu 1.1 mn in content grant and equipment, 7.5 mn in printing subsidy and Nu 16.8 mn in MEDB coming to a grand total of Nu 25.4 mn.
This is well below the Nu 40 mn that the private media is alleged to have received.
To add context, the majority of the Nu 7.5 mn printing subsidy money did not come to the private media but was largely given by the Bhutan Media Foundation (BMF) directly to Kuensel Corporation which printed the papers. Even in the Nu 16.8 mn MEDB a substantial portion went into printing with Kuensel Corporation.
