The Bhutanese Leading the way.
During the Meet-the-Press session, The Bhutanese questioned the Minister of MoICE about how the ministry plans to stop or regulate exploitative practices in reality shows.
In response, Lyonpo Namgay Dorji stated that according to Section 7 (140) of the ICM Act 2018, BICMA is responsible for regulating internet connections and other ICT and media services. Therefore, reality shows are regulated by issuing permits to monitor content producers in the country.
One of the conditions for obtaining a show permit is to limit voting lines to SMS and mobile banking to prevent excessive and bulk voting. However, it remains an individual’s choice to avoid the potential pitfalls of participating in reality shows.
Lyonpo said, “Many issues could arise in reality shows, such as defamation, non-payment of prizes copyright issues, exploitation of labor including contestants among others. Many of these issues are taken care of by the contractual agreement between the show organizer and contestants. It is also under the purview of different agencies with some even criminal in nature.”
However, Lyonpo mentioned that as per the ICM Act of Bhutan 2018, BICMA does not have the mandate to hear and settle disputes that are criminal in nature.
One of the participants mentioned that after participating in reality shows, she had significant psychological consequences for particularly facing financial debt or intense public scrutiny. The pressure to perform, coupled with the uncertainty of the outcome, had led to heightened stress and anxiety.
In response to recent allegations about reality shows being exploitative, the public has shown concern over the treatment of the contestants.
Reality shows provide a platform for individuals to showcase their talents, performing live in front of the audiences and a panel of judges.
Moreover, such shows offer ordinary people a ticket to instant stardom, where audiences have been introduced to numerous hidden talents who began their careers by performing on reality shows.
On the other hand, reality shows have also caused negative impacts.
In 2022, the a new term of reference for reality shows was issued in response to the increasing number of proposals and issues related to exploiting participants and failing to disclose voting amounts.
Under this new term of reference, it is stipulated that only SMS votes from the public will be used to decide the winner, and bulk voting will not be allowed from 2022 onwards.
Despite these regulations, a recent report by The Bhutanese highlighted that many participants in reality shows still face exploitation.
They revealed the darker side of these shows, stating that participants often have to solicit votes from the public. If they fail to persuade enough people, many end up borrowing substantial sums of money to vote for themselves, often amounting to more than the prize money itself.
It was concluded that such competitions were not truly based on talent, but rather on how much money an individual could afford to spend.
The paper also highlighted that the prize money was insufficient for individuals to repay their debts.
Dear,
The same issue might of happened in Yesterday’s Grand Finale of Bhutan Rising Star Season II whereby the organisers have postponed the voting time by 15 minutes quoting technical issue. I am sure this move may be intended in favour of some contestants than others by allowing them vote more or manipulating the vote or encouraging the participants to vote more during that extended period thereby jeopardizing other contestant.
Please investigate the matter if media is interested…