The Information and Broadcasting Ministry in Bangladesh has taken a significant and well-expected decision to stop the illegal broadcasting of domestic and foreign TV channels and operation of unlicensed commercial activities on the broadcast media. It includes illegal IP TVs as well as news channels run on YouTube. According to an official press release, the ministry took the decisions at a meeting with the Posts, Telecommunications and ICT Ministry at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s conference room on May 2, 2024. State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat chaired the meeting.
According to ministry’s press release, the decisions taken during the meeting are:
- Only service providers permitted under the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006 can transmit domestic and foreign channels approved by the government to the subscribers.
- Foreign channels or any unauthorized channel cannot be downlinked, broadcast, transmitted or distributed without clean feed.
- Set-top boxes cannot be imported and marketed illegally.
- It is completely illegal to carry out campaigns inspiring the use of apps for streaming TV channels or selling such apps by installing in set-top-boxes. The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) should take legal action against this illegal act.
- The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and ICT will take necessary steps in accordance with the existing laws and regulations against any illegal activity for Bangladesh’s security and increasing government revenue collection, preventing money laundering and preserving the country’s art, literature, culture and values.
- According to the Section 3(1) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no distributor or service provider shall downlink, market, transmit or broadcast any channel in Bangladesh other than the channels approved by the government on the basis of designated application form. Furthermore, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued instructions regarding clean feed broadcasting of foreign TV channels programs, so no person or organization could broadcast or transmit foreign TV channel programs without clean feed.
- According to the Section 3(2) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no distributor or service provider can market, transmit or broadcast any channel in Bangladesh through their own programs like video, VCD, DVD or any other means except the government approved channels. No person or institution shall broadcast or transmit the feed of a domestic or foreign TV channel or any channel of its own violating the law.
- As per the Section 4(1) of the Cable Television Network Management Act, 2006, no person shall operate activities as a distributor or service provider without holding license. Therefore, no person or organization except license holding distributors or service providers can operate or broadcast TV channels or programs.
- Authorized distributors should inform their foreign TV channel broadcasters about the decisions in written form.
- Legal action will be taken against persons or organizations involved in unlawful, illegal or unauthorized broadcasting.
It may be mentioned here that, dozens of illegal IP TVs as well as YouTube-based news channels are engaged in peddling fake news and disinformation, while a large segment of these illegal channels are involved in numerous forms of criminal activities including blackmailing and extortion.
This correspondent has identified several news channels on YouTube although it is unknown if these channels are operating legally.
