Bangladeshs Innovation Mukta Khabor
(Adapted from a paper presented by Fuad Choudhury, Ekushey Television, and based on an episode of Mukta Khabor)
At 7 pm every Saturday Bangladesh tunes in to a news
programme that is brisk, highly professional, heart warming and path-breaking.
The anchors are a girl and a boy, the latter dressed much the way women anchors
are on Zee and Star, and every bit as poised and professional. Their programme
is called Mukta Khabor which means Free News, free as in freedom. And it is
news by children, and about children, though watched avidly by people of every
age group.
This programme was launched on September 2, 2000 and has completed two years.
It is an example of how alternative funding can help to bring diversity into
programming of commercial television. It is produced by children between the
ages of 12 to 16, who are the most neglected age group in Bangladesh, and
constitute almost a quarter of the country’s total population. A weekly
programme which costs 90,000 taka per episode, it is jointly funded by UNICEF,
Save the Childrens Fund, and Ekushey Television, Bangladesh’s first private
sector TV Channel.
The idea was to produce a news show in which children would handle news with
social relevance, and fifty per cent of the young team producing this venture
would be from economically weak families. Applications were invited
accordingly, and from 800 hopefuls 209 made it through the written and verbal
tests, as well as theatre games devised for the selection. Ultimately 32
adolescents were chosen, sixteen from underprivileged homes. It is a
politically correct venture in all possible ways: a gender balance has also
been ensured, with boys and girls getting an equal chance at field reporting,
studio interviews, and anchoring.
News reporters at Ekushey TV helped break in the MK team which was given two
months formal training in TV production techniques. They have their own
teenaged camera people who also work closely with Ekushey News camera crews.
And their news room is separate from the channel’s newsroom. It is possibly the
only TV station in this part of the world to have kids running around in its
corridors.
A recent episode of Mukta Khabor had a story on children who are used in the
making of bombs. It is a magazine format show, with a focus on young people,
and the less fortunate among them. The anchoring is brisk, unfussy and
professional, even when the anchor is tiny, such as a little girl who hosts a
show dealing with letters from viewers. The Mukta Khabor team chooses its own
stories, and now heads out to do whatever interviews are required without
needing to take a letter from their parent TV station along. All of them are
now celebrities: Bangladesh’s response to the show was immediate and very
positive. It now has an established viewership across the country.
Several NGOs and other organizations which deal with children have come forward
to assist in different ways. They feed in story ideas and news tips, regarding
stories that concern children and adolescent issues. They also provide
accommodation, transport and food during location shooting. Government and
private sector enterprise and educational institutions provide logistical
support. The Army provided helicopter and boats during the Bangladesh. floods,
the police give them access and interviews, so the children are able to cover
national events. They too quizzed the then Prime Minister during one of her
press conferences. And when on occasion the Mukta Khabor team has been on the
spot to catch breaking news, their footage has been used by Ekushey TV’s
national news, with due acknowledgement.
In studio based discussions Mukta Khabor has interviewed a range of people.
These reporters have no hang-ups about asking probing questions. As the show
has evolved, new segments and features have been added. A lost and found
feature was introduced following requests from families of many children across
the contr who have just disappeared. They have either run away or been
swallowed up by crime and chaos on the streets. Some children have been found,
thanks to this broadcast.