Page 93 - PDP Manifesto 2018

92 MANIFESTO : 2018
6.4 A Vibrant & Free Media
A er the advent of private media in 2006, the Bhutanese media grew by leaps and bounds in the rst few years. Besides informing the nation, the media have been crucial in advancing free speech through public debates, dialogues and discussions and dissemination of information. Despite grappling with sustainability issues, our young media continued to perform its
Pledges:
watchdog role, questioning the government and exposing corruption.
Media is an important democratic institution. We believe that for democracy to ourish, media must be strengthened. We shall come up with favorable policies to enable media houses to e ectively ful ll their responsibilities.
We shall institute a Media Development Fund to facilitate access to nancial assistance to ease the sustainability challenges faced by media houses.
We shall provide nancial incentives and tax holidays for media houses for the next ve years.
We shall subsidize printing of newspapers.
We shall continue to invest in the professional development of journalists and media professionals through short-term and long-term trainings and internships in international news organizations.
For greater and easier access to public information, every government agency shall have a media and information o cer who will provide prompt information to the media and facilitate proactive sharing of information. We shall continue the monthly Meet-the-Press sessions to facilitate media’s direct access to the cabinet to enable media to hold the government accountable and question the government on pertinent national issues.
We shall support the Journalists Association of Bhutan through an annual sustainability fund.
PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC PARTY UNITY. STABILITY. PROSPERITY.