Wikiprotest...

Truly shocking!...

Bhutan Today’s headline this morning was shocking. “People living in miserable conditions: OL” it screamed. Shocking! But not quite true. The recent earthquake destroyed many houses. According to government reports more than 4000 houses have been damaged. So many people are unhappy. And they are frightened. And they are impatient. They want the authorities to [...]

Informing people...

Today’s banner features 75-year old Jabari Dan Rai who hails from Dumtoe, a remote gewog in Samtse. By seven every morning, this remarkably healthy septuagenarian arrives at the Lungtenampa bridge to distribute that day’s newspapers to pedestrians making their ways to school and work. Bhutan’s media has come a long way. From very humble beginnings [...]

National speaker?...

Yesterday, members of the National Assembly met to discuss the preliminary agenda for the Assembly’s next session. During the discussions, the members also considered if the entire proceedings of the National Assembly should once again be broadcast on live TV. After exchanging the same old arguments – from the need to promote transparency by those [...]

Playing the game...

My post entitled “Playing the media” drew many responses. Two of them were from Tenzing Lamsang. In his first response, Tenzing argues that “sources” play an important role in revealing crucial information, often by taking great risks. He writes that: Investigative Journalism internationally has to rely on confidential sources and so is the case in [...]

Social media and Bhutan...

Social media was the subject of Bhutan’s attention on two occasions last month. In one, the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy organized a conference to discuss “… the current social media scene in Bhutan and … how this can be used to benefit Bhutanese society.” The conference, which also provided “… a step by [...]

Playing the media...

Back in 2008, Tenzing Lamsang, working with Kuensel at that time, wrote a series of stories about the impending pay hike for civil servants. His stories, based on information from unnamed “sources” in the government, added fuel to the wild rumors and speculation that were already rife throughout the country. The government was obviously leaking [...]

Secret agents...

WikiLeaks: 38 of you said that WikiLeaks promotes transparency and accountability in government; 24 think that it threatens international relations and global security; and 6 readers either had made up their minds or didn’t know about WikiLeaks. Thank you for taking the poll. It’s important to think about WikiLeaks. And what the whistle-blowing phenomenon means [...]

2 Letters...

I sent two letters today. The first letter was to the Chief Election Commissioner informing him that the ECB’s recent decision to revise the criteria for candidates to local governments may violate provisions of the Constitution, Election Act and the Local Government Act. The second letter was to the Director of BICMA complaining that The [...]

Beware of mad dogs...

Reporters Without Borders is a nongovernmental organization that fights for freedom of the press. Each year, Reporters Without Borders publishes the Press Freedom Index, an assessment and ranking of press freedom around the world. In 2003, Reporters Without Borders ranked Bhutan’s press freedom record at a miserable 157 of the 166 countries they studied. But [...]