‘People do not write letters’, said one of my colleagues who are In-charge of the readers’ letters section. He was very frustrated at the beginning of our new newspaper as readers’ response was low. He was not a supporter of publishing readers’ letters every day.

But a simple announcement changed the scenario. I proposed for online communication with the readers. That means, we will receive readers’ letter as e-mail. Even we have started a weekly program where our readers can express their opinions by using their phones. We have engaged some of our colleagues who write their opinions.

At the first day, the response of our readers were so out standing that we were in trouble to manage all of those with in two pages. It is just the beginning. Now we ask readers’ opinion at every weekend. Response is very good. We believe that it helps to increase the number of our readers. Because those who give their opinions, eagerly wait to see that at print and online version. Even they call if their opinions are not published.

Now I want to say another thing. We have offered several quiz contests for world cup football beside our regular quizzes. There also offer attractive prizes. Everyday our staffs at the reception corner of our office saw many letters. There were some big boxes in front of the office just to receive answers of the quizzes. We had to change those with in hours. The response was huge.

We were in a discussion to understand-why do our readers answers quizzes but do not write letters? One answer is incentive. Although the process of writing letter is quite critical, the readers responded for prizes.
The people who generally write letters for readers’ corner or editorial page they generally write about their problems and expectations.

As we have offered receiving letters at online the number of writers have increased. However, as many people can write in English and cannot write in Bangla at computer, they generally write Bangla pronunciation by using English alphabet. That is quite problematic. Because we have no option to convert those messages. We just rewrite those.

But we are hopeful that in future they will write by using correct fonts and writing styles.

While discussing with the participants over light refreshment in a local bar within the neighborhood of Kreuberg, the radio’s main anchorman, Wolfgang König explained to the team that the main ideology behind the radio’s establishment in 1991 was to integrate the various migrant communities in Berlin but unfortunately, the fm project has continued to grapple with some fundamental teething problems which mainly includes funding and shortage of staff amongst many others.

Radio multicult fm was described as the successor of the former public radio channel ‘radio multikulti” RBB. It was founded in December 2008 as a web radio and has been running a 24 hours programme thereby contributing to the perception of Berlin as an open minded European metropolis.

Furthermore, multicult fm serves as the voice for people with migrant roots from over 180 nations represented in Berlin, with its diverse programming; it seeks to adequately provide an alternative radio programming for those who could not keep up the pace with the traditional German radio programming.

Speaking further, König explained that multicultural fm is intended to act as a mediator between local and international players especially in view of the fact that more than 25 percent of Berlin’s residents are migrants. Hence the multicultural fm serves as a catalyst of social debates through the robust exchange of knowledge, the promotion of cooperation in place of confrontation. This also becomes obvious with the realization that inter cultural communication contributes to the positive perception of differences.

Giving further insight into the activities of the fm station, music journalist and freelancer, Karin Milke, told the participants that with the closure of the radio’s operations in 2008, the organizers decided to operate the fm station from the web, hence the internet edition of the fm station went on air in 2008 thereby making the fm station a product of modern technology. However, in order to adequately represent the various migrant communities in Berlin, a soft ware which allows listerners to listen to programmes in different languages was developed to enhance effectively participation from all the minority ethnic groups that are located in the German capital city.

But while spear heading the establishment of a radio programming with such a lofty ideals is one thing, another far more important factor is the possibility of effectively representing the migrants who live in the capital city. According to Konig, “the objectives of the radio programme are in a state of serious jeopardy because of debilitating financial bottlenecks and coupled with the fact that there is shortage of staff. This is even more appreciated especially in view of the fact that, journalists who work for the fm station are not assured of any form of financial remuneration.”

Thereafter, the participants were taken to the proposed physical office complex of the multicult fm station which is still under renovation. As a move to enhance the sustainability of the radio programme, appeals were made to the participants to occasionally volunteer to contribute to the programming content of the fm station from their various countries.

In the final analysis, while the move to integrate the migrant community into the German social system is commendable, it remains to be seen why some conservative members of the German society still remain opposed to the idea.

“Yeah, we are part of four national news paper here in Germany but our reader is smallest in number,” Oertel explain with laughing. Taz sold , at least, 60.000 copies everyday mainly to subscribers. Money problem? Of course. Oertel who studied Political Science and Slavic Studies in Hamburg and Paris said Taz is paying its staff less than most other newspapers in Germany. In first year they even paid in the same number for all staff, mean for reporter until cleaning service have the same paid. But now Taz already paid their reporter about 1500-2200 euro, Oertel said still small number if compare with other news paper reporter’s salary.

In the beginning Taz doesn’t want affiliate with certain stakeholder, and because of that they not give space for any advertisements. “Advertisement is capitalist. But now we can’t live without it,” said Oertel. That time Taz just rely on small donor from public. But now in hard economic situation, they decided to take advertisement, but still in the small number. “If other new paper advertisement percentages 80-20, Taz only have 20 spaces for advertisement and 80 for it contain,” Oertel explain.

It’s still not enough. To support the living of Taz, kafe and Taz souvenir shop build in the first floor of Taz’s building. And to make Taz much more closer to their reader and also to save this newspaper company from bankrupt, Taz now already go public, which mean everybody can buy Taz’s share. “We don’t want just one people become majority on share own,” said Oertel.

Taz which publish everyday with sell price 1.30 euro each also offer something different to their reader. They not really focus on straight news but try focusing story on deep report on one page, usually on humanitarian issues that can’t get from other news paper. “If you want hot news, you can get it from other news paper. Yes, we’re provided our reader with hot news but just in short article,” Oertel explain. Focusing on deep report on one page, according to Oertel is part of Taz’s innovation to make them still running.

Money problem, indeed happen in Taz. But for Oertel it’s not a big problem. ”Taz very poor and lack of advertisement, yes it’s true. But here in this place I can find great environmental work ambiance which I can share all my idea,” said her who already work for Taz more than 15 years. (Nunik Triana)

Bayerische Rundfunk (BR)

Hessische Rundfunk (HR)

MITTELDEUTSCHE RUNDFUNK (MDR)

Norddeutsche Rundfunk (NDR)

Radio Bremen (RB)

Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)

Saarländische Rundfunk(SR)

Südwestrundfunk (SWR)

Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR)

and also international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) is one of the ARD members.

One of the main tasks of ARD is to organize radio and television programs for the community and to spread it. The nine regional broadcasters of the ARD have about 20,000 permanent employees, and many more freelancers. They produce 11 TV channels, 55 radio stations and 16 orchestras and 8 choirs. The total budget of the ARD is about 6.3 billion euros ($7.7 billion) a year. ARD has approximately 100 radio- and television correspondents in 30 countries, as well as studios across Germany.

A communication and information officer Eva Woyte in ARD Berlin studio told us about the structure of ARD and also its important role of ensuring of good policy in Germany. According to her, the German audiovisual media system is called a “dual” system. This means there are only two forms of ownership of broadcasting in Germany: public-service and private. Private broadcasters live almost only from the revenues from advertising. The Public radio and TV studios live at the expense of fees for the use of radio or TV. Public-service broadcast does not belong to any state or private individuals or companies, but it is a “public” property. A council which is formed out of respected public figures, usually representatives of major political parties, voluntary associations, churches, trade unions and etc., implements such management that allows for more balanced and unbiased programming policy.

ARD Hauptstadtstudio is a joint facility of the nine national broadcasters of the ARD. It produces “hot spots” to federal policy and takes special programs to elections or during state visits. For instance, every week the “Report from Berlin” – the TV magazine of the First Channel about the federal policy, appears with current reports and analysis as well as the monthly presentation of the “DeutschlandTREND”. Also the fact and documentary channel Phoenix has its own editorial and production staff in ARD Berlin Studio.

The ARD Hauptsatdstudio has found the ideal location, in the center of Berlin, close to the Reichstag, the Bundestag buildings – the Bundespressekonferenz (Federal press conference) and Kanzleramt (Chancellery). Short distances for journalists and politicians on the way to current message: spatial proximity and critical distance to the policy.

The ARD broadcasts every day on the whole 1400 hours of radio and 240 hours of TV program. So they achieve market share an average of more than 55 percent in the radio and nearly 29 percent on TV.  According to the stable scheme each radio and TV broadcaster delivers its contribution to the joint program in the ARD. This also should include co-produced materials, such as centrally procured feature films, serials, submissions to the international exchange of television programs. The most important are the information transfer “Tagesschau” (“Daily News”) and “Tagesthemen” (“Topics of the day”). Common structure of the ARD broadcasting is as follows: about 40 percent of airtime devoted to information, around 60 percent – to education, sports, music and entertainment programs.

To arrange radio and television programs costs money. The studios have to build and maintain, obtain footage and sound recordings. Feature films and television rights (such as sporting events) should be purchased, a copyright must be compensated, and the services of permanent and freelance staff must be paid.

The public service broadcasting gets the money from the people who own a TV set or radio and for this pay broadcasting fees. These broadcasting fees will be used to pay the work of broadcasters around the country to 85 percent. The revenue from advertisements and sponsorship makes an amount of about six percent; the rest of other income is from other activities such as from co-productions, financing and program exploitations.

The amount of broadcasting fees cannot be determined by the broadcasters themselves. This is based on a recommendation of the independent commission to determine the financial needs of broadcasters, in short, KEF (Kommission zur Ermittlung des Finanzbedarfs der Rundfunkanstalten). Owners of devices receiving electronic media in Germany should pay a monthly fee. For owners of television sets, it is now about 18 Euros a month, and owners of radios, computers and smartphones must pay monthly 5, 76 Euros.

The possibilities to get money from radio and TV advertising and also revenue from sponsorship are tightly limited by legislation. For example, advertising is prohibited after 20 pm and also on Sunday.

Explaining to journalists from Asia and Africa who visited the media house while in training for media responsibility course, Gunnar Schupelius a member of managing committee of editors of B.Z newspaper explained that they aim at giving their readers what they want much.Schupelius elaborated that, they now write less politics and concentrate much on sports to win their readers interest. Apart from that angle of winning their readers on sports point of view but B.Z is also winning its readers by encouraging young people to read their newspaper and not materials from the internet.

Schupelius said that they are working closely with internet and they are not taking internet as their enemy but they believe they can both interact the same way perfectly.  “We now focus on encouraging young people to read much newspaper and not searching materials from the internet, it is a hard task but that’s what we are trying to do”, Schupelius said.

B.Z newspaper also focuses on reporting on women issues as their statistics shows that they got many female readers, in fact 50 per cent of its readers are female.

Schupelius elaborated that they are also trying to write much articles on women issue not only to please their readers but also to maintain their advertising agencies since majority of their adverting agencies like female readers.

B.Z is still a leading opinion paper in Berlin they have minimum of 172000 circulation of papers per day. They reach 480,000 readers every day and 390,000 readers every Sundays.

One thing in common with tabloid papers in Uganda or worldwide is that they use catching words to captivate the readers’ attention and their interest to read further.   Having read a couple of tabloid papers, I have learnt that tabloid papers very often exaggerate and stretch the truth to breaking point, to try to interest people.  Tabloid newspapers are usually more informal compared to normal  newspapers for instance Taz in Germany or The Guardian from the United Kingdom.

Normal quality papers tend to have more serious news than tabloids e.g. Politics while tabloid will normally have more social or sports stories. For a tabloid like BZ to have 172,000 copies reaching nearly 480,000 readers we can say is a great achievement.

By visiting one of the paper’s editor Gunnar Schupelius said that many working class people in Berlin would gladly carry this tabloid and read it in the train or bus when heading for home. This is typically different to Uganda’s working class who would not dare carry the Red paper or Onion tabloid papers of Uganda in public. Many of them consider this a shame to read a tabloid paper with nude pictures in public simply because many tabloids publish explicit stories or pictures.

BZ is also published on the internet just like many papers in the developed nations. This confirms the reality that internet is not newspaper’s enemy but both sides can interact perfectly well. Like many papers BZ tries to focus mostly to things that are not right in the society. They try to tell less out of everyday life, less politics and more sports. Their journalists many of whom are on contract have busy schedules due the fact that the paper comes out twice daily 20:00Uhr and 6:00Uhr.

Typical to many newsrooms, BZ has editorial meetings every morning in a conference hall suited right at the center of the Building sitting on former Berlin wall line and overlooking former East Germany and West Germany. BZ is a local paper covering only local content with no hope of making international or national.

To the excitement of many journalists from 15 countries worldwide was a statue of United States President Barack Obama and a Vuvuzela sitting at the window seal of the Editors desk. The Big plasma screen hanging below the roof infront of the editor is the only style I have seen so far. The editor can read and edit the paper that is in process without having to strain her eyes because of the big letters on the screen.

After all is said and done we ask ourselves the million dollar question, ‘Do tabloid journalists adhere to the ethical principles of Journalism? Were is the line drawn and what are the effects of this kind of reporting?’

Mr Schupelius was right there to tell us that they publish nothing but the truth of what’s happening in society, before any of their photographer takes a picture of someone, consent is requested prior to taking the picture. It’s to the public interest to read and see what is happening to public figures hence they do not need to seek permission from a public figure to take their picture say if they are having a pee under a tree.

The line between tabloids and normal quality papers is definitely thick in the sense that Tabloid usually use more colour have shorter sentences and use more pictures, they are cheaper to the normal papers and usually smaller in size, publish more sex, crime, scandals and sports stories while normal papers have more of politics and hard news.

A six-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim declared the sentence for publishing a news in the Daily Amar Desh on April 21 of this year (2010) with the headline “Chamber bench means stay order in favor of the government”.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the journalists that this is the first time the Supreme Court convicted any person and sentenced him to jail for committing contempt of court. He hopes that the judgment will prevent the trend of committing contempt of court and no body will dare to tarnish the image and dignity of the apex court.

On May 2, two lawyers filed the petition against Mahmudur and four journalists of the daily newspaper for publishing the report. The Supreme Court issued a contempt of court rule against Mahmudur and four others following the petition on June 2. The court also sentenced Aliullah Noman, staff reporter of the Daily Amar Desh, to one-month jail and fined him Tk 10,000.
He will have to serve seven-day behind bars in default to pay the fine.

The court also fined Hashmat Ali, publisher of the Daily Amar Desh, Tk 10,000. He will also have to serve seven days in default to pay the fine.

The court however pardoned Deputy Editor of the Daily Amar Desh, Syed Abdal Ahmed and News Editor Mujtahid Faruqui from the charge.

Before this The Supreme Court yesterday (Wednesday) termed Mahmudur Rahman as ‘an editor by chance’. Mr. Mahmudur informed the court that he does not have academic qualification on journalism, nor did he ever work as a reporter or sub-editor.

The court also asked him if he had contacted the judge concerned before the report about him was published in his daily. He replied, he thought that the concerned reporter had done that.

Mahmudur also said the report based on an investigation contained right information, and it was not contemptuous of court. Replying to a query of the court, Mahmudur said he himself had made the headline of the report.

The SC bench then observed he (Mahmudur) does not know how to address a judge of the apex court. It also said public confidence is the power of the judiciary, and if a judge is undermined, people’s confidence in the judiciary will be damaged.

A HC bench directed the government to stop the piracy immediately through enforcing the copyright act properly. The bench also asked to confiscate all the pirated copies of CDs (compact disks) and DVDs (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) from markets.

The HC also ordered the government to submit a report on steps taken to stop piracy in every three months.

President of Bangladesh Film Production and Distribution Association Gazi Mazharul Anwar and Secretary of Bangladesh Music Industries Owners Association Sheikh Shahed Ali jointly filed the writ petition in May this year.

Chairman and Registrar of Copyright Board, Inspector general of Police (IGP), Director General (DG) of Rapid Action Battalion and Secretaries to the ministries of Home Affairs, Industries, Finance, Commerce, Cultural Affairs, Information, Science and Technology have made respondents in the verdict.

The HC came up with the verdict following a writ petition stating that stakeholders in film and music industries are facing a serious damage as pirated CDs and DVDs are being sold in the market openly.

I think that other neighboring countries may follow India for security concern. The Government of Bangladesh is going to legalize the VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Few months some PSTN operators have lost their operational license for illegal VOIP. Mobile phone operators have also faced penalty. So if the authorities of Blackberry, Google and Skype give access to the governments, ordinary people at least will get the opportunity to use those.

We have the example of banning Youtube and Facebook. Bangladesh Government had banned those for anti-country or unexpected campaigns in Facebook and Youtube. Government had restored that after few days.

Especially young people are the users of this social networking sites and communication device. They had protested after the ban. A Bangla newspaper published the news of banning Facebook as lead.

As the election manifesto of the present government of Bangladesh is to make ‘Digital Bangladesh’, people do not expect any ban on online activities. We know that there may have security concern about the activities at online. However, we do not support ban. Ordinary users suffer from that.

Few years ago, there was no mobile phone network at the hill tracts area. Security was the main reason for that. We cannot support to shut down network for security concern. Security official should do their work by keeping the network active.

Several websites of Bangladeshi government organizations were hacked few days ago. The concerned government officers did not know about the hacking. When we contacted with them for comment we were astonished.

I personally believe that IT experts are essential to protect cyber crime. It may not be possible by ordinary civil servants. To shut down the network or imposing ban on sites are not any solution.

By using Internet, we have developed online community. They communicate through online. They are also contributing in online journalism and citizen journalism. So if our governments impose ban on social networking sites and network our online journalism and citizen journalism will be affected.