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MEDIA: Asia's Only Public Broadcaster Struggles to Stay Alive
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Nov 20 (IPS) - Seven years after the launch of Asia's only public
broadcaster, the pioneering station is struggling to stay alive because
corporate sponsors shy away from support, pushing it to become increasingly
dependent on U.N. agencies and other supporters.
"It's a struggle to keep this station going,'' said Hilmy Ahamed, the
managing director of Young Asia Television (YATV), launched in Colombo by
Worldview International Foundation, a Norwegian-backed non-government
organisation.
''We want to be a leader in social communications but we lack the
support of the private sector which is essential for any media
organisation," he says
Today, YATV, which uses MTV-like presentation of news and issues
surrounding the news, reaches up to 40 million people in 22 countries in
Asia and Europe. Its programmes range from human rights, development, the
needs of young people and conservation.
It hopes to expand its reach to 63 countries including Africa and the
Americas, targeting particularly young people.
But the challenges of maintaining development-oriented programmes and
attracting commercial supporters for material that is usually seen as
commercially unviable are forcing YATV to take a second look at its current
approach.
This is why, Ahamed says, ''our new strategy is to deal with U.N.
agencies and be their media campaign partner''.
Sharmini Chanmugam, YATV's editor-in-chief, says that its broadcasting
of a programme on the right to development, supported by the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific, and a locally-backed
programme on human rights education are part of this new approach.
The locally backed programme is supported by the Sri-Lankan based
Institute of Human Rights and has a 26-episode series of five-minute videos
discussing torture, HIV/AIDS, sexual orientation and internally displaced
people.
One story, for instance, relates how people living in a residential area
outside Colombo were informed that a major highway was running through
their properties - five years after the project began.
"These people have been kept in the dark. That is the problem. The right
to information is a basic fundamental right," Lalanath de Silva, human
rights advocate, said in this series.
Both series on rights are being offered free to any broadcaster and
would be launched on Dec 10, international human rights day.
Like any public broadcaster, YATV focuses on non-sensational news,
providing an alternate approach to news and highlights social injustice.
"That's the problem. Our programmes are good and well received by
everyone including the corporate sector. But when it comes to financial
support, the corporates shy away because we deal with controversy. Also
advertising on these programmes won't directly help to sell products," she
said.
Chanmugam, who had a long stint at national television broadcaster
Rupavahini before joining YATV at its inception, however firmly believes
there is a space for public broadcasters like her station.
"There should be laws tied to licences given to private broadcasters by
governments to offer space to public and social broadcasts. People need to
know their rights and about social injustice. It is a public interest
issue,'' she explained.
YATV does not have its own channel and has to negotiate with state and
private broadcasters across Asia for space on their channels. In Colombo,
its programmes are run on Rupavahini and TNL, a private station with
similar contracts in the rest of the world.
YATV was launched in 1995 at a time when the Internet and satellite
television began breaking down conventional media barriers.
Programmes like 'YA Tribe and Nature Calls' have young pony-tailed men
clad in jeans and T-shirts discussing music festivals and dramas across the
world. 'Space to Let' focuses on marginalised women and those who are
helping to improve their lives.
"We also want to highlight Asians who are doing things, who are
influencing society. We don't only talk about problems. We like to also
find possible solutions and present these," Chanmugam said.
Some 40 stringers across Asia and a full-time staff of producers and
camera crews churn out stories on issues including the rights of women,
education and the peace process in Sri Lanka to end its 19-year ethnic
conflict, which occupies a key place in its current coverage.
"We have interviewed personalities like S P Tamil Chelvan, head of the
Tamil rebels' political wing, long before the peace process began and the
BBC (British Broadcasting Corp) or CNN (Cable News Network) came into the
picture," says Ahamed.
He adds that the station's two peace programmes 'Sathi' and 'Vilippu'
(meaning 'awakening' in the Sinhala and Tamil languages respectively) have
an audience even abroad.
YATV is using a London broadcaster to transmit its programmes to 35,000
households of Tamils of Sri Lankan origin in Europe.
The station's other content is not far off - in stimulating public
debate, raising concerns and demanding action.
HIV/AIDS forms a prominent part of YATV coverage, challenging
misconceptions, creating awareness on safe sex and - for instance -
interviewing a group of school children in Nepal and Bangladesh on the
importance of introducing sex education in the school curriculum.
Chanmugam said their focus would be the issues that the mainstream media
does not sufficiently cover or completely ignores. The station produced only
English-language programmes at the beginning but gradually began
local-language programmes as corporate sponsorship began drying up. The
strategy has paid off to some extent.
"We are reaching larger audiences through local language programmes,"
she said.
Ahamed hopes that the fact that YATV is probably the only one of its
kind should attract many supporters. But he concedes, "The biggest problem
however is that we are in the non-government world and thus can't attract
corporate advertising." (END/2002)
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