Ethnic Issues Ignored in Media

by Kazi Mohoshin Al Abbas    August 15, 2008

Bangladesh is a country with a colorful ethnic diversity. As the ethnicity is concerned Bangalee are the majority absolutely but in hills, in Sal forests and in plain land of Barind area are till full of almost two dozens of ethnic groups.

In three hill districts, Rakhain, Chakma, Marma, Murang, Boam, Tonchoingya, and few other ethnic groups are living with their distinct language, culture, social structure and norms. In the hill of greater Mymensing and northern part of Dhaka are the lands for Gharos, Mandi, Hajong and few other ethnic minorities. North West zone of Bangladesh from Rajshai to Dinajpur many ethnic groups are living, Santal and Orao are the main communities.

It was observed that the life of the ethnic minorities is not properly portrayed in the national and local media. To overcome the problem a program has taken which is supported by the Delegation of the European Commission to Bangladesh.

Under this program, a round table was organized in Madhupur, Tangail recently. In the round table, organized by a local NGO, Indigenous community leaders, social activists, government officials and journalists stressed the need for proactive role of the media to protect the rights of ethnic communities through projecting their sufferings.

Indigenous leaders told the roundtable that most of the ethnic issues are ignored in the local and national media, and ethnic voices are almost absent. Media portray some stereotyped images of ethnic life and highlight only some cultural activities and incidents. On the other hand, journalists said they need authentic sources of information while reporting on major ethnic issues, but very few people dare to provide information.

However speakers of the roundtable said the media could be used as a powerful tool of disseminating information about the ethnic groups and drawing attention of the policymakers to resolve their problems.

One expert attending the round table mentioned that the indigenous people are deprived of adequate media coverage. Issues relating to their rights and sufferings are not adequately reflected in the media; the expert added and suggested that journalists should concentrate on objective and in-depth reporting on the ethnic communities.

Government representative to the round table stressed the need for objective reporting in media.

“Media should not write anything which can affect the long tradition of peace and harmony between the plain land people and the indigenous community,” the Government representative added and further said more interactions between the media people and indigenous community would help reducing communication gap. #

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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