Bangladesh: Exciting radio programme

A lack of professionalism and politically one-sided: Only a few radio stations in Bangladesh provide reliable information. The DW Akademie supports citizen radios with training regarding professional reporting.

Chickens clucking in a radio report about a health station? Fresh meat crackling on a street-side barbecue in a report about the life of students? The description of the acrid stench of urine in a piece about a market hall?

Hearing the whole reality of life, appealing to the senses with professional reporting and conveying topics in a vivid manner is part of the craft of journalism. It is virgin territory for the volunteers at the citizen radios in the cities of Rajshahi and Sitakund.

Yet at the end of the DW Akademie's one-week training course the results were well worth hearing. Each of the 15 course attendants created a vivid radio reportage including sounds and interviews – and they were enthusiastic about this kind of 'designed' reporting.

"One has to bear in mind", says Eberhard Sucker, Country Manager Bangladesh at the DW Akademie, "that the radio makers have no journalistic basic knowledge whatsoever. Therefore, they were incredibly grateful for the training. 'Radio can be this exciting?' is a sentence we heard more than once."

Since previously there had been a lack of corresponding equipment for reporter deployments and no vehicles available for reportage, the programme until now consisted of interviews with studio guests – the actual important link to the people in the community.

Many collaborators at the citizen radios are journalism students from the universities in Rajshahi and Chittagong. For them, non-commercial local radio is the only opportunity to gain some practical experience.

"The students are well versed in the theory of journalism", says Margit Miosga, trainer at the DW Akademie, "but they know next to nothing about the actual practical work, about making radio."

In a first step, the aim of the workshops was to support the participants in the production of radio reportage. Using practical exercises, trainer Miosga explained how to achieve a good recording and together with the course participants she struggled through recordings with distorted sound, interviews that are too silent and sounds that are too loud.

To enable practical experience for all participants, the DW Akademie sponsored five recording devices each for the two citizen radios.

In addition to technical and craft know-how, the training courses covered also the attitude and approach of reporters. "A demanding topic", Margit Miosga thinks. "We often experience that the reporters themselves adopt a very shy, all too respectful attitude and do not dare to challenge something."

Yet the makers of citizen radio are part of the community and therefore precisely those who are close to the urgent issues and problems of the people.

One obstacle, however, is the media legislation. "Citizen radios are subject to the legal provision not to report about national politics. This means that reporting is restricted to topics such as gender issues, dietary and health advice as well as agriculture, at a very local level", says Eberhard Sucker.

Although the stations are allowed to report about local politics, "the radio volunteers surely would not pick an argument with, for example, a local politician."

Even so, the country manager sees great potential in the citizen radios. Bangladesh boasts a wealth of media services, he says, but not enough plurality of opinions.

"Although with the citizen radios we can act only at the lowest level, the bigger picture sometimes is reflected in the small one", says Sucker.

Until 2017, the co-operation with the DW Akademie aims at including more citizen radios in other regions, so that in future reporting becomes professionalised with the help of the DW Akademie and journalistic standards can be established in the countrywide network of citizen radios.