“Why?” you might ask, would I leave my comfortable life in Sydney to travel to a country that hardly anyone seems to have ever heard of? Many of my friends asked me the same question and rumours spread rapidly regarding the true reason for my departure. The more outrageous of these included that I had received a job tutoring the children of the royal family while another friend congratulated me for my arranged marriage in China. The newsletter at my work announced that I would be travelling to an ‘Aladdinesque’ country in the Middle East - and I can’t even begin to count how many times I was asked which country Bhutan is in.
The real story is far less glamorous - but just as exciting! For the next 3 months I will be working as an intern at The Bhutan Observer, one of the country’s six national newspapers. The internship was organised and supported by the media department at Macquarie University and will be counted as one subject towards my final degree.
It is an exciting and crucial time in the development of the Bhutanese media. In 2006 Bhutan began the peaceful transition from a monarchical rule to a parliamentary democracy. The media, which had previously been completely under government control, was now free. The call was put out for the establishment of an independent newspaper and The Bhutan Observer responded with a noble vision to act as the “independent voice” of the Bhutanese people. Since then the independent media has grown slowly and steadily and been instrumental in developing democratic debate.
But, with growth inevitably comes challenge, and at this crucial point in time the Bhutanese media industry is being tested on a range of issues including ownership, financial sustainability, journalistic ethics and quality of content. It is during this crucial period of development that important decisions will be made about privacy, freedom of the press, censorship and political influence. The results of these decisions will form the backbone of the Bhutanese media for many years to come.
The difficulty of dealing with these problems is exacerbated in Bhutan where there is no tradition of free media and where the population lacks a culture of interacting with media. So while it is essential that the media maintain a strong independent voice to ensure political transparency, the importance of the media is continually being overlooked by the public and by politicians. While The Bhutan Observer has largely maintained its original vision it is struggling against the inevitable pressures of commercialisation.
I will use this blog to record my experiences living in Bhutan and working at the Bhutan Observer.
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