Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) along with other like-minded organizations has been conducting advocacy with the Government for community radio in Bangladesh since its inception. As a consequence, the Ministry of Information recently formulated Community Radio Installation, Broadcasting and Operation Policy 2008.

Primarily 116 organizations were identified as eligible of policy approval for community radio in a meeting of the National Regulatory Committee held in the Ministry of Information on Tuesday 15 July, 2008. On 23 July 2008 Ministry of Information sent an official letter to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and Home Ministry to issue security permit for the selected 116 community radio stations. As a consequence, investigation by three Government intelligence wings are working in the field level to find out required integrity, quality and legal status of the CR initiators.

From the community radio related experience, BNNRC feels deep urge that there should be an all out national initiative to train up manpower for the smooth operation of the community radio stations. With this view, BNNRC has set up a Community Radio Academy. From this academy training courses, technical support and research and development support will be given to the community radio stakeholders round the year.
In this backdrop, with main focus on the role of community radio in developing life and livelihood of the rural communities, Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy – 2008 and technical operation of Community Radio and strategy of work-plan for sustainable operation of community radio, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) organized a daylong training workshop on Community Radio: How to Get Started and Keep Going in Bangladesh at IDB Auditorium in Dhaka on Wednesday, 27 August, 2008.

A total of 136 representatives from 98 community radio initiators including non-government development and research organizations took part in the workshop.
Session 1 and 2: Key Concept and Guideline of Community Radio and Community Radio Policy in Bangladesh and statutory Requirements to Operate the Community Radio
Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC AHM Bazlur Rahman presented welcome address and presented key concepts of community radio operation and CR policy 2008 in the workshop. In his presentation, he said, it is high time the community radio initiators could design a business plan and work plan for a full-fledged community radio studio and station in the respective community location. So, every initiator should have a clear concept of the policy level and technical level expertise regarding setting up a community radio.
In this regard, Mr Rahman presented a pictorial discussion on four types of broadcasting systems, special features, preparation works, frame-work and community involvement in a community radio station. During the question-answer session, CR initiators demanded reducing the importing tax from the community radio equipments and minimum charge for BTRC frequency allotment for community radio as it is the starting period of CR operation in Bangladesh.

Session 3: Community Radio Technology
Technical Expert of Community Radio Academy Mr. Sohel Awrangzeb presented a paper on technical aspect including studio set up, equipments, production and broadcasting techniques and budget for a community radio station. In his presentation, Mr Awrangzeb gave a pictorial description of pre and post readiness of the studio, transmission, indoor and outdoor broadcasting, recording, editing and program production system of a community radio station. Through question-answer session, participants came to know the technical aspects in details regarding commencement of community radio operation.

Session 4: Gender Relations and Development (GRD) in Community Radio Operation
At the forth working session, Consultant of BNNRC Mr. A H M Abdul Hai presented a paper on Gender Relations and Development in Community Radio Operation while Researcher of Institute of Hazrat Muhammad (SAW) Ms. Shaila Simi was in the chair. A proposed gender policy in community radio mentioning women's access to the airwaves, women's representation on air, special needs of minority women, women's representation at all levels of station management, use of appropriate technology and funding and capacity building for women's radio complying with the gender policy for CRS by AMARC-WIN AP was presented at the workshop.
The respondents called for greater access to leadership, management, finances and the whole cycle of CR set-up. They also recommended changes in the program contents and participation in the various stages of production. Among the recommendations of the policy include training for women; use of free and open source software, a quota of at least 30 per cent for women's leadership and representation; and special radio programs for women. The policy also suggested more practical measures such as space allotment for child-care; flexible working hours; women-friendly equipment set-up and broadcast schedules; adequate lighting and security at the station; and transportation arrangements for women who live in remote areas.
Session 5: Plenary Session
At the plenary session, participants expressed their valued suggestions regarding way forward to enhance their capacity and skills in program production, broadcasting, technical set-up and operation of community radio stations. In this respect, NGO leaders stressed on the regular training and capacity building workshops for the community radio human resources from Community Radio Academy.
They also gave much emphasis on the active role of National Institute of Mass Communication (NIMC) in arranging training courses on community radio operation. They hailed the BNNRC initiative of opening national help desk in its secretariat for all out information and technical support to the community radio initiators and establishment of Community Radio Academy.
From this academy training courses, technical support and research and development support round the year are highly expected by the community radio stakeholders. Moreover, conducting a national baseline survey on CR, producing a national geographical map marking the CR locations, developing training curriculum, handbook and arranging annual conference have been planned under the activities of Community Radio Academy.
In the workshop, development organizations declared their commitment of distributing a large number of free radio sets among their stakeholders to ease the community radio listening for the poor community people.


AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council, UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)
House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh, Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501, 01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105, E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net

Community Radio has a very special place in BNNRC's intervention. The objective of BNNRC 's Community Radio intervention is to address crucial social issues at community level, such as poverty and social exclusion, empower marginalized rural groups and catalyze democratic processes and on going development efforts. You know BNNRC is promoting the advocacy with the government in relations to community radio with other organizations since its emergence.

Role of Community Radio in rural areas like give voice to the people who normally have no access to the mass media nor opportunity to express their views on community development, Speeds up the process of informing the community and therefore acts as a catalyst of change, Promote the right to communicate, assist the free flow of information and opinions, encourage creative expression and contribute to the democratic process and a pluralist society;

Provide access to training, production and distribution facilities; encourage local creative talent and foster local traditions; and provide program for the benefit, entertainment, education and development of their listeners.

Seek to have their ownership representative of local geographically recognizable communities or of communities of common interest. Provide a right of access to minority and marginalized groups and promote and protect cultural and linguistic diversity. Seek to honestly inform their listeners on the basis of information drawn from a diversity of sources and provide a right of reply to any person or organization subject to serious misrepresentation. Community Radio helps to put the community members in charge of their own affairs

As a result Ministry of Information of People's Republic of Bangladesh has announced the Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy 2008 for the first time in Bangladesh. The Ministry of information has also formulated three committees i.e National Regulatory Committee, Technical Sub Committee and Central Monitoring Committee to look after the smooth operation of community radio in Bangladesh.

By the way the technical sub-committee formed in accordance with the community radio policy 2008, sent a list of 124 Government and non-government organizations after sorting out of 180 applications to the National Regulatory Committee headed by Information Secretary. This committee selected 116 organizations eligible for license on Tuesday 15th July, 2008. Notably, 400 organizations drew application forms from the Ministry but only 180 submitted their applications for license. Having insufficient documents, papers and qualifications for the license, applications of those organizations have been ineligible of the consideration for license.

BNNRC provided technical assistance to around 200 organizations in the community radio application process through a National Help Desk on Community Radio in BNNRC Secretariat in Dhaka. Through this experience we have felt that a pro active institution should be activated to create necessary human resource, research and development and technical cooperation for Community Radio in Bangladesh.

In this backdrop, BNNRC has established Community Radio Academy. The Academy is going to provide community radio related training, technical assistance and other support round the year. We hope community radio to be the alternative and strongly effective mass media for the rural disadvantaged population to express their thinking in their own voice.

We invite you to join Community Radio initiative in Bangladesh.
ceo@bnnrc.net

Community Radio License to be issued within two months
In Bangladesh


Issuing license to set up 116 community radios in Bangladesh is under consideration of the Government. These community radio stations will start operation within two months, the concerned authority expected. Primarily 116 organizations have been identified as eligible for license of community radio in a meeting of the National Regulatory Committee held in the Ministry of Information on Tuesday 15 July, 2008.

Sources said, the technical sub-committee formed in accordance with the community radio policy 2008, sent a list of 124 Government and non-government organizations after sorting out of 180 applications to the National Regulatory Committee headed by Information Secretary. This committee selected 116 organizations eligible for license and withheld 12 organizations in its meeting on Tuesday. Notably, 400 organizations drew application forms from the Ministry but only 180 submitted their applications for license. Having insufficient documents, papers and qualifications for the license, applications of those organizations have been ineligible of the consideration for license.

The sources said, the selected list has been sent to the office of the Chief Advisor for the policy approval. After this approval, the list of the selected organizations will be sent to the Home Ministry for non-objection-certificate. Then Information Ministry will start issuing license after allocating frequency for the community radio stations by Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Central Monitoring Committee headed by Director General of Bangladesh Betar will monitor the community radio activities.

Primarily it is impossible to allocate frequency for more than 5 community radio stations in the coastal districts and more than 3 in other districts. Moreover, it will take only two months to allocate frequency after completing all process; it was said in the meeting.

Information Secretary Mr. Jamil Osman told that, we will try our best to issue license by completing the necessary process as early as possible. Initiatives will also be taken to create awareness among the mass people of this new mass media in the country.

Role of Community Radio at community level
Give voice to the people who normally have no access to the mass media nor opportunity to express their views on community development, Speeds up the process of informing the community and therefore acts as a catalyst of change

Promote the right to communicate, assist the free flow of information and opinions, encourage creative expression and contribute to the democratic process and a pluralist society;

Provide access to training, production and distribution facilities; encourage local creative talent and foster local traditions; and provide program for the benefit, entertainment, education and development of their listeners. Seek to have their ownership representative of local geographically recognizable communities or of communities of common interest.

Provide a right of access to minority and marginalized groups and promote and protect cultural and linguistic diversity. Seek to honestly inform their listeners on the basis of information drawn from a diversity of sources and provide a right of reply to any person or organization subject to serious misrepresentation. Community Radio helps to put the community members in charge of their own affairs.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC) has already set up Community Radio Academy as one of its social enterprise to promote Community Radio installation, broadcasting and operation around the country.


Bazlu

_______________________
AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net

The pilot syndrom and donor driven ICT4D projects have not yet over in the development arena. In many developing countries, development practitioners and agencies are still patronizing the trend which needed to be stopped or at least minimized significantly. In fact, due to this trend, ultimately, poor communities are not being benefitted by using ICT as much as the practitioners. This is acute in telecenter based initiatives.

In Bangladesh, what we have experienced that if you wish to serve the community people, mainly the poor, and you can do it profitably. So, serving the poor through profit is already tested & proved, for example, village phone program of Bangladesh.

Main challenges we have seen in framing the services and developing the business model for ICT4D projects. In most case these are supply driven, not focused on the need of the poorer community.

In many cases, it is obvious that support is required from development agencies, but the question is where, for what and why? If these questions are resolved and development agencies, even the giant corporates like Intel, Microsoft should focus on strenthening the govt. sector and private sector first and then if require go with the NGO's or any social service providers.

Now, ICT4D has become a fashion, the most 'sexy' development agenda. It generate money, free global tours and holistic face for some people BUT the poor remains poor.

So let's raise our voice to overcome this and promote effective use resources for the betterment of poor.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) participates actively in Voter Registration for preparing a fresh voter list with photographs and National Identity Card (NID) program through the Rural Knowledge Centre(RKC) taken by the Bangladesh Election Commission in the countrywide.

As a part of its activities to reduce information and communication technologies divide between urban and rural, BNNRC has supported 10 Rural Knowledge Centre (RKC) through its networking member organizations. Eight upazillas of seven districts have been participated in the program. The upazillas are: Kawkhali of Rangamati district, Sitakunda and Mirsarai under Chittagong district, Hatiya under Noakhali, Charfasion of Bhola district, Bauphal of Patuakhali, Patharghata under Borguna and Zianagar of Pirojpur district.

To accelerate the Voter Registration and National ID card program, BNNRC has taken a campaign to motivate people to include their names in the voter list and to take photographs for National ID card purpose. The field workers of the respective member organizations of BNNRC like, Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), Dwip Unnayan Shangstha(DUS), COAST Trust, SPEED Trust, Sankalpa Trust and Pirojpur Gono Unnayan Samity and the youth volunteers selected by the Rural Knowledge Centre(RKCs) are actively participating in the campaign. The activities have been taken by BNNRC regarding this are as follows:

To collect posters, leaflets, stickers, paper cuttings related to campaign from other organizations and to distribute these at the field level. Continuous motivation program is going on.

A total of 66 rural youth where 48 are male and 18 are female have been enlisted as ‘Data Operator” with the cooperation of concern Upazilla Nirbahi Officer (UNO) through a selection process. Earlier, they have taken computer training from the Rural Knowledge Centres(RKC). Some of them are working at Sitakunda upazilla under Chittagong district and others are practicing computer at Rural Knowledge Centre (RKCs ) for better performance.

Moreover, a process is also going on to build up skills of 29 (Male 20 + Female 09) trainees before November. BNNRC expresses hope that a total of 95 rural youth will be included as Data Operator in the Voter Registration and National ID Card on going program of Bangladesh Election Commission of People’s Republic of Bangladesh.



--------------------
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
www.bnnrc.net

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) and with other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) has been continuing advocacy with the Government for a long time to open up the Community Radio in Bangladesh.

Community Radio movement in Bangladesh is a very promising yet critical stage. Different NGOs civil society groups, journalists, intellectuals and other concerned entities of this country are putting continuous and ardent effort in order to come up with a Community Radio friendly regulatory environment through appropriate government regulations.

Just last year, a National Consultation on Community Radio was jointly organized by MMC, BNNRC, FOCUS, YPSA and VOICE and supported by UNESCO, UNICEF and UNDP- Bangladesh with the goal of identifying course of action on how to proceed for introducing Community Radio in Bangladesh. At the end of that consultation, the participants agreed to put more focused effort on Community Radio piloting and the enactment of the draft Broadcasting Act 2003.

But till now, no pilot project has been commenced in Bangladesh as far as the case of true participatory based Community Radio service is concerned. The member organizations of advocacy group already have the human resources, contents and organizational motivation needed to initiate, manage and sustain any pilot Community Radio project.

Advocacy group is to initiate any Community Radio project addressing the issues related with fulfilling Millennium Development Goals (MDG), World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Action Plan, PRSP and knowledge based Society.

Recently, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has taken a strategic campaign program where the Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Hon'ble Chief Adviser of the Non-Party Care Taker Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Barrister Mainul Hosein, Adviser of the Ministry of Information and the Mr. Didarul Anower, Secretary of the Ministry of Information were included.

Under the campaign program, an appeal was made to allow the draft broadcasting policy, side by side the Govt. was requested to give permission for launching some community radio as pilot basis. On the basis of the findings of the pilot project, Govt. can allow the full pledged community radio in the country for long term.

As a result of the strategic campaign, for the first time, a high level meeting was organized by the Ministry of Information regarding community radio. The meeting was held at the conference room of the ministry at 11 a.m. on July 23, 2007.

Mr. Didarul Anowar, Secretary of the Ministry of Information presided over the meeting. Among others 15 high officials of the ministry including the Director General of Bangladesh Betar (Radio Bangladesh), Principal Information Officer (PIO) and Joint Secretary of Ministry of Information attended the high level meeting.

On behalf of advocacy group Mr. Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, Chairman of BRACNet and former secretary Government of Bangladesh, Mr. Kamrul Hasan Monju, Executive Director of Mass line Media Center (MMC) and Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR, Chief Executive Officer of BNNRC participated the meeting.

In his welcoming speech the Secretary of Ministry of Information emphasized on to find out the ways to launch community radio as pilot basis. Mr. Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury highlighted the importance of Community Radio in brief. Mr. Kamrul Hasan Monju and Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR briefed the meeting on community radio, its program, management, monitoring, community content and licensing system.

After an elaborate discussion, a high level committee was formed and the Director General of Bangladesh Betar (Bangladesh Radio) was nominated as the Convener. The committee will submit a concept note, guideline and a regulatory frame (draft) of Community Radio to the Secretary of the Ministry of Information within a month.

BNNRC’s recommendations to
ICT sector in the proposed budget
of Bangladesh 2007-2008

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has recommended that there is no reflection of implementation of committed action plan by the Government of Bangladesh towards the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) in the allocation for Information and Communication technology (ICT) sector of the proposed budget of 2007-2008.

The strategy had been taken in the PRSP to increase the access to ICT for disadvantaged groups and accordingly telecentres will be established at different places of upazilas to provide all sorts of information such as agriculture, food, education, health etc. and to promote use of ICT in disaster management and risk reduction and increasing capacity of the poor to manage disaster. But no reflection has been seen in the proposed budget.

According to the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Action Plan the Government committed that internet connection will be provided to the students of schools and colleges. But due to lack of allocation in the budget in this regard, the ICT movement will be obstructed,

BNNRC recommends to the Government to withdraw all kind of duties and Value Added Taxes (VAT) on computer and accessories, cartage, internet services, camera, mobile phone, SIM card, laminating machine, photocopy machine, and solar home system etc.
BNNRC seems that the Government should promote the nation to use open source software instead of pirate software and allocation will be needed in this purpose, so that the whole nation will be stopped from a pirate culture.

It has been observed that budget of the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been formulated based on some institutions, which impact will not contribute directly to the lives and livelihood of the poor. Otherwise, due to impose of 10% duties on computer and its accessories and also including 15% Value Added Tax (VAT), the price of computer equipment must be increased up to 25%. As a result, the access to ICT of rural people will be hampered very seriously. Finally, the commitment of the Government to the people of the world regarding reducing digital divide will become a nightmare.

BNNRC seems that importance should be given on ICT what directly will play role on the lives and livelihood of the poor people during formulating the budget and fund must be allocated accordingly. It should be keeping in mind that access to ICT is not a privilege, it has become a basic human rights and it should be done towards reducing information divide/ knowledge divide between urban and rural.

Besides including these in the budget, BNNRC suggests to ensure the permission for Community Radio, to enact Right to Information Act, National Broadcasting Policy, 2003 (Draft) and allocation of 10% phone for income less people of rural area according to Telecom Act, 2001.




----------------------
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net

BNNRC Campaigns for Waiver of Radio/TV User License Fees in Bangladesh

Description: Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC) run campaign and seek dialogues with the Bangladeshi government to get waiver on radio/TV license fees in Bangladesh.

Campaign to Waive the Radio/TV License Fees in Bangladesh

Campaign Summary:
A rumor was spread over the country that the Joint forces have been examining the license of radio and television after formation of the new Care taker Government and declaration of Emergency Power Rule. Whether the people could not show the license, the forces are taking the radio and televisions forcefully or breaking those.

There were several news on this published in the National dailies and broadcasted over the channels. BNNRC has been making dialogues with the government since a long time to waive the fees of license of Radio and TV.

Objectives:

- To leave the license fees of radio and TV in the changing situation.
- To formulate a convergence policy regarding the use of information & communication technology (ICT), telecommunication, Broadband, Cable TV including radio and television and also
- To establish people’s rights in mass media.

The Story:
At present, a citizen of Bangladesh has to pay Taka. 450 ($ 6.7) and Taka. 20 per year for using TV and Radio respectively. Besides, it was not clear to the concern departments of Government, users or to civil society what the Government wants through different circulations, which were circulated in time to time. Some of them said that those who make license since 2000, they do not need to pay. Another parts said that those who paid license fee during buying TV/Radio, they also not to need to do license. Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) talked to many officers of many departments but did not get any clear guideline over this. So, the rumor spread over the country.

In this context, a young pro-people journalist Mr. Shawkat Milton, Staff Reporter of ATN - Bangla requested Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman, of BNNRC to give an expert opinion on this regard for ATN Bangla prime news.AHM Bazlur Rahman commented:
1.According to the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1933 and 1970 the Government is now collecting Radio/TV using fees.
2.But when the government took that decision, then there was no other media except Government own Radio and TV.
3.Due to globalisation, there are many commercial and community based broadcasting systems have been operating in the country; it does not have any logic to collect license fees from the people. Because, the people are now watching/ listening private channels and private radios as like as NTV, ATN -Bangla, Channel 1, Channel I, Bangla Vision, Baishakhi, RTV, Radio Furti, Radio Today etc. So there is no reason to take license fee only for Watching Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Radio.
4.Besides, TV/Radio can be watched or heard by using ICT e.i. Computer, Laptop, Mobile Phone.
5.Firstly, it is not logical to take license fees. Secondly, if the Government wants to take license fees, then it should be divided among the fees Public Broadcasting system, Commercial Broadcasting system and also Community Broadcasting system.

Outcomes:
After broadcasting the interview of Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman, The CEO of BNNRC in ATN Bangla, more than 100 phone calls have been received from the civil society of the country. The interview was highly appreciated by different level of society. A Press Note was circulated on that night from the Press Information Department of the Government and also it demanded that no this type of responsibility was given to the Joint forces. It was requested in the press note to hand-over to the police if anybody again go to examine the license.

- This was given highly importance in the Advisory Council’s meeting also. Besides this, an amount has to pay by the buyers at the time of buying Radio/TV. They recommended fixing it for once a time. Those who bought radio/TV already in the mean time, they should be waived from license fees.

The Character:
-ATN-Bangla played a pro-people responsible role broadcasting the report on such public interest related in appropriate time.
-Through an interview, RAB requested not to believe the rumor. They also informed that RAB is not involved with this.
-The Advisory Council to the Care-taker Government considered it as a very important people’s agenda.

End of the Story:
According to vision of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) the license system of Radio/TV is an obstacle to Right to Information of the general people.

BNNRC hope, Government will free the people from the burden of license fee and will remove the existing information divide between urban and rural area. Government will build a knowledge based society what he promised earlier through WSIS action plan. BNNRC will lead the campaign in future again.

AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net

Report
National Seminar on Internet Governance:
Global, Regional and National Perspective


Dhaka, 14 October 2006

Jointly Organized By
The Monthly Computer Jagat
www.comjagat.com
and
Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication
(BNNRC)
www.bnnrc.net

Introduction

The Internet is a public, global system of interconnected commercial, academic, household and government network. Unlike most communications media, Internet technology is based on global, open and nonproprietary standards. The mixture of open standards, diverse networks and the growing ubiquity of digital devices has transformed the internet into a revolutionary force that undermines traditional media such as newspapers, broadcasting and telephone systems and challenges existing regulatory institutions based on national boundaries.

Internet policy affects a wide range of social issues. It affects who gets to participate in the online economy. It affects intellectual property- witness the attempts to control and regulate Internet-based communication in order to protect copyrights and trademark. It determines who gets access to the key technical resources, such as domain names and IP address, that make Internet service possible.

As a target of government surveillance, it affects privacy and civil liberties. It affects freedom of expression, forcing the worlds diverse polices to be harmonized. It provokes devotes over the global balance of power, as the US government holds unilateral control of internet resources through ‘ Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number- ICANN’, against the will of users and governments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The creation of ICANN in November 1998 has given the debate on Internet governance a new focus.

Why the seminar?

The objectives of the seminar is to review the present situation and practice of the internet governance in Bangladesh; role of the government of Bangladesh on internet governance; role of the different sectors to disseminate information up to rural level through internet.

In this perspective the organizers of this seminar (The Monthly Computer Jagat
and Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)) on Internet governance apprehend that with the passing of time the debate is becoming more and more comprehensive. Even it touches the global forum like UN.

The WSIS Geneva Action Plan has requested the UN Secretary General to open a process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participations of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums to investigate and make proposals for actions appropriate on Internet governance.

Following this, UN Secretary General convened a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue- the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The next meeting of IGF is scheduled to be held for four days from 30 October to 2 November, 2006 and it is disclosed that the overall theme of the meeting will be ‘Internet Governance for Development’.

With the intension to have a national say from Bangladesh to that forum’s next meeting both the organizers felt the to do this a national seminar would do better in this regard and to the seminar was resulted.

The seminar that was

The seminar titled as ‘Internet Governance: Global, Regional and National Perspective’ was held on 14 October, 2006 at Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh while advisory member to the UN Internet Governance Forum Abdullah H Kafi, acted as the moderator.

The Chief Executive of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication AHM Bazlur Rahman first delivered his welcome speech in the seminar. Then the key note paper was presented by Information and Communication specialist TIM Nural Kabir. The summery of the seminar was then presented by Editor in Charge of monthly Computer Jagat, Mr Golap Monir and finally the Assistant Editor of Computer Jagat M. A. Haque Anu thanked everyone.

The keynote paper was presented by TIM Nurul Kabir, an expert on this subject, while the seminar was attended by represented by deferent sections, like business forums, NGOs, Media etc. Seminar participants proposed different models for the process of establishing an Internet Governance mechanism acceptable to the people around the goal keeping in mind that the main theme should be ‘Internet Governance for Development’.

The participants stressed on for broad themes as recommended by IGF and they are:
• Openness- freedom expression, free flow of information, ideas an knowledge;
• Security- creating trust and confidence through collaboration;
• Diversity-promoting multilingualism and local content;
• Access- Internet Connectivity: policy and cost.

During the discussion the participants repeatedly mentioned that we should have an Internet governance system- in the global, regional and national perspective- that will allow the internet users to initiate and continue their development works freely and not a single country will be able to control the internet system.

The Recommendations

After the keynote presentation and panel discussion, a general discussion was also held during the seminar. In the light of the opinions passed by participants, a set of recommendations was prepared with the goal of placing those before the IGF meeting to be convened between 30 October-2 November, 2006 in Athens, Greece,



Here are the recommendations:

We endorse the recommendations of APC, UNESCO, WGIG, IT for change-India and Amnesty International for their position of Internet Governance.

01. The structure of Internet Governance should address the will of people across the globe.

02. The structure should follow the IGF’s recommended broad themes: Openness, Security, Diversity and Access.

03. Openness of the Internet Governance System itself should guarantee the freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge for the people in all corners of the globe.

04. Security thrust should be given to create trust and confidence through collaboration.

05. There should have a diversified effort to promote multilingualism and local content.

06. The governance should allow the have-nots of the globe an easy access through cost-effective connectivity.

07. The seminar participants strongly felt that it is absolutely against the will of global people that the US government holds the unilateral control of internet resource and there should have an immediate end of it.

08. The participants also maintain the viewpoint that the process which ICANN has used to make different decisions (i.e. the appointment of the Board of Directions and fees for registering domain names to its recent Registry Agreement with Network Solutions and its adaptation of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement) is secretive and undemocratic.

09. ICANN has already exceeded its scope of authority and threatens to continue its jurisdiction on issues over which it has no legitimate control. If ICANN succeeds in its immediate mission, then it will be the institution most well placed to take on broader governance role in the future as questions about the privacy and protecting intellectual property become even more pressing.

10. If we have an international organization like ITU to govern the Internet, there should have multi-stakeholders representation, not by government representation only.

11. The issues of Internet governance related to the regional and national level in addition to the global perspective should put into our pipeline as well.

12. The participants opined that the future Internet governance agency should not be like the WTO one.

For Bangladesh:

13. Reform the Government Organization in Bangladesh like Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) which is related with Internet Governance. Ensuring Civil Society participation in reform process.

14. Take initiatives, to widely circulate the duties and responsibilities of this organization by Government.

15. The stakeholders group those who are related with Internet service in Bangladesh, should urgently prepare an action plan for them to build up internet connect in rural areas.

16. The stakeholders group those who are related with WSIS process in Bangladesh should urgently prepare an action plan for them to implement the WSIS Action plan in Bangladesh.

-----------------------------------------------------

Report
National Seminar on Internet Governance:
Global, Regional and National Perspective


Dhaka, 14 October 2006











Jointly Organized By
The Monthly Computer Jagat
www.comjagat.com
and
Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication
(BNNRC)
www.bnnrc.net



Introduction

The Internet is a public, global system of interconnected commercial, academic, household and government network. Unlike most communications media, Internet technology is based on global, open and nonproprietary standards. The mixture of open standards, diverse networks and the growing ubiquity of digital devices has transformed the internet into a revolutionary force that undermines traditional media such as newspapers, broadcasting and telephone systems and challenges existing regulatory institutions based on national boundaries.

Internet policy affects a wide range of social issues. It affects who gets to participate in the online economy. It affects intellectual property- witness the attempts to control and regulate Internet-based communication in order to protect copyrights and trademark. It determines who gets access to the key technical resources, such as domain names and IP address, that make Internet service possible.

As a target of government surveillance, it affects privacy and civil liberties. It affects freedom of expression, forcing the worlds diverse polices to be harmonized. It provokes devotes over the global balance of power, as the US government holds unilateral control of internet resources through ‘ Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number- ICANN’, against the will of users and governments in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

The creation of ICANN in November 1998 has given the debate on Internet governance a new focus.

Why the seminar?

The objectives of the seminar is to review the present situation and practice of the internet governance in Bangladesh; role of the government of Bangladesh on internet governance; role of the different sectors to disseminate information up to rural level through internet.

In this perspective the organizers of this seminar (The Monthly Computer Jagat
and Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC)) on Internet governance apprehend that with the passing of time the debate is becoming more and more comprehensive. Even it touches the global forum like UN.

The WSIS Geneva Action Plan has requested the UN Secretary General to open a process that ensures a mechanism for the full and active participations of governments, the private sector and civil society from both developing and developed countries, involving relevant intergovernmental and international organizations and forums to investigate and make proposals for actions appropriate on Internet governance.

Following this, UN Secretary General convened a new forum for multi-stakeholder policy dialogue- the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The next meeting of IGF is scheduled to be held for four days from 30 October to 2 November, 2006 and it is disclosed that the overall theme of the meeting will be ‘Internet Governance for Development’.

With the intension to have a national say from Bangladesh to that forum’s next meeting both the organizers felt the to do this a national seminar would do better in this regard and to the seminar was resulted.

The seminar that was

The seminar titled as ‘Internet Governance: Global, Regional and National Perspective’ was held on 14 October, 2006 at Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh while advisory member to the UN Internet Governance Forum Abdullah H Kafi, acted as the moderator.

The Chief Executive of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication AHM Bazlur Rahman first delivered his welcome speech in the seminar. Then the key note paper was presented by Information and Communication specialist TIM Nural Kabir. The summery of the seminar was then presented by Editor in Charge of monthly Computer Jagat, Mr Golap Monir and finally the Assistant Editor of Computer Jagat M. A. Haque Anu thanked everyone.

The keynote paper was presented by TIM Nurul Kabir, an expert on this subject, while the seminar was attended by represented by deferent sections, like business forums, NGOs, Media etc. Seminar participants proposed different models for the process of establishing an Internet Governance mechanism acceptable to the people around the goal keeping in mind that the main theme should be ‘Internet Governance for Development’.

The participants stressed on for broad themes as recommended by IGF and they are:
• Openness- freedom expression, free flow of information, ideas an knowledge;
• Security- creating trust and confidence through collaboration;
• Diversity-promoting multilingualism and local content;
• Access- Internet Connectivity: policy and cost.

During the discussion the participants repeatedly mentioned that we should have an Internet governance system- in the global, regional and national perspective- that will allow the internet users to initiate and continue their development works freely and not a single country will be able to control the internet system.

The Recommendations

After the keynote presentation and panel discussion, a general discussion was also held during the seminar. In the light of the opinions passed by participants, a set of recommendations was prepared with the goal of placing those before the IGF meeting to be convened between 30 October-2 November, 2006 in Athens, Greece,



Here are the recommendations:

We endorse the recommendations of APC, UNESCO, WGIG, IT for change-India and Amnesty International for their position of Internet Governance.

01. The structure of Internet Governance should address the will of people across the globe.

02. The structure should follow the IGF’s recommended broad themes: Openness, Security, Diversity and Access.

03. Openness of the Internet Governance System itself should guarantee the freedom of expression, free flow of information, ideas and knowledge for the people in all corners of the globe.

04. Security thrust should be given to create trust and confidence through collaboration.

05. There should have a diversified effort to promote multilingualism and local content.

06. The governance should allow the have-nots of the globe an easy access through cost-effective connectivity.

07. The seminar participants strongly felt that it is absolutely against the will of global people that the US government holds the unilateral control of internet resource and there should have an immediate end of it.

08. The participants also maintain the viewpoint that the process which ICANN has used to make different decisions (i.e. the appointment of the Board of Directions and fees for registering domain names to its recent Registry Agreement with Network Solutions and its adaptation of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement) is secretive and undemocratic.

09. ICANN has already exceeded its scope of authority and threatens to continue its jurisdiction on issues over which it has no legitimate control. If ICANN succeeds in its immediate mission, then it will be the institution most well placed to take on broader governance role in the future as questions about the privacy and protecting intellectual property become even more pressing.

10. If we have an international organization like ITU to govern the Internet, there should have multi-stakeholders representation, not by government representation only.

11. The issues of Internet governance related to the regional and national level in addition to the global perspective should put into our pipeline as well.

12. The participants opined that the future Internet governance agency should not be like the WTO one.

For Bangladesh:

13. Reform the Government Organization in Bangladesh like Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) and Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) which is related with Internet Governance. Ensuring Civil Society participation in reform process.

14. Take initiatives, to widely circulate the duties and responsibilities of this organization by Government.

15. The stakeholders group those who are related with Internet service in Bangladesh, should urgently prepare an action plan for them to build up internet connect in rural areas.

16. The stakeholders group those who are related with WSIS process in Bangladesh should urgently prepare an action plan for them to implement the WSIS Action plan in Bangladesh.

-----------------------------------------------------


AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com www.bnnrc.net

Global communications meet searches for answers
By Rahul Kumar of One World South Asia(OWSA)

Rome: The first World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) took off in Rome with introspection deep in the minds of development professionals and communication experts, on where does communication stand in the development sector, and whether communication strategies can be given credit for successful development programmes.

Probably one of the answers to the vexed question of what makes for effective communication for development came from the Bhutanese Minister of Agriculture Sangay Ngedup who said: “Effective communication for us has been listening to the people and understanding their problems. The leadership in my country has walked every single inch of the harsh terrain, sat with the people and ate food with them. Getting answers from the people of Bhutan has made for a good communications strategy.”

“The government of Bhutan has come up with a measurement of Gross National Happiness and we have successfully protected our culture as well as our natural environment along with meeting our people’s needs. In a recent census we found that nearly 97 per cent of the people in the country are happy. It was only three per cent who said that they were not happy,” said the minister.

People, local communities and the grassroots was the answer that came repeatedly from politicians as well as practitioners for answers to better communication, right communication and well as the mantra for successful communication strategies.

The Minister for Environment and Territory of Italy Alfonso Scanio, who addressed the opening session said the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) has caused an alarm over the depletion of natural resources by industrial countries. “We plan to discuss the Kyoto protocol at a conference in Nairobi soon after this meeting. The Himalayas and the Amazonian forests face a deep threat due to climate change, therefore we have to use natural resources more carefully. So, what we definitely need is a high level of communication and effective communication to deal with such issues of concern.”

The debate on the role of communication in development raged throughout the day. Executive director, Programmes at the Communication for Social Change Consortium, Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron said: “Environment has been on the global agenda for over two decades still not much has happened. On the contrary many governments have made natural devastation their national agenda. Seems the only communication that the governments listen to is from corporates and that is a communication that goes against environment.”

He added that the latest buzzword is `participatory communication’ but again for that to be right organisations have to ensure that their policies are right, their communication strategies are correct and that they have the right staff to implement these strategies.

Speaking at one of the sessions, director Millennium Campaign Salil Shetty gave an overview of the recent Stand Up Against Poverty campaign which made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for “being the largest single coordinated movement of people in the history of the Guiness World Record.”

Shetty said: “The Millennium Campaign was started in 2002-2003 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan when we realised that inequality was growing between countries as well as within countries. It was a political issue that though the world has enough resources people continue to be poor. We therefore built the campaign on three things – increase awareness on MDGs, build political will and work with people to make governments accountable.”

“We realised that this was not going to be an easy task. We worked with communication experts and with advertising agencies to create messages that people would understand. We used celebrities and even Nelson Mandela joined us. Now we find that aid to the developing world has increased and debt cancellation has taken place. So, do we attribute this to the massive two-year global campaign that we launched or was it a natural global political process? The jury is still out on it.

The three-day meet was inaugurated by the Italian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Patrizia Sentinelli in the presence of hundreds of development practitioners, information and communication experts and communicators from all over the world. The global meet has been organised by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and The Communication Initiative with the Government of Italy as the host.

The WCCD is looking at how Communication for Development contributes to better development effectiveness that can impact the lives of people and communities in a positive way. It also tries to understand if communication for development can be pushed into the mainstream media, an effort, that could increase the reach and the impact of development communication.


----------------------
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com www.bnnrc.net

WCCD: Community Radio left out in the cold?
By Rahul Kumar of One World South Asia(OWSA)

Rome: Radio experts and communicators working on community radio have urged the World Congress on Communication for Development (WCCD) to give community radio its rightful place as a development tool in the communications debate. Radio specialists are dismayed that the global meet has overlooked the vital role of community radio in empowering people and strengthening democracy in many regions, including, conflict places.

The radio fraternity is feeling left out as almost nothing related to the medium has been included in the draft recommendations by the WCCD. The Congress plans to give the final recommendations on how to mainstream development communication to governments as well as donor agencies and this crucial output is the place precisely where community radio does not find mention.

Managing director at Communication for Social Change Consortium (CSCC), James Deane, said: “We have seen monumental changes taking place because of community radio interventions in various parts of the world – Nepal, Latin America and now in parts of Africa. In fact some of these go far deeper and have a bigger impact than many other communication strategies and I feel that the evidence of efficacy of radio cannot be questioned.”

A documentary shown by the BBC World Service Trust highlighted the role of radio in disseminating news in times of stress. It showed Ghanian journalists providing live coverage of elections through mobile phones, for their radio stations, disallowing disgruntled politicians to criticise the electoral process. With live coverage from poll booths, the common man could make out the fairness of the electoral process giving no chance to certain candidates to complain.

Making a strong pitch for giving more prominence to community radio, well known journalist, researcher and communication policy expert Bruce Girard, said: “It is a known fact that radio stations in Latin American countries have supported changes of governments and have espoused pro-people sentiments. In Bolivia when the military took over the very first action of the coal miners was to protect the radio stations.”

Vice president of AMARC (World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) and Nepalese community radio practitioner Raghu Mainali documented the medium’s strong role in the political changes in the Himalayan nation. He added that it took almost a decade for community radio to establish itself as an effective tool for bringing about social change in Nepal.

Mainali said: “During the anti-king protests in Nepal, radio stations took a decision to defy the government. All information that we broadcast was carefully selected and the stations decided to broadcast this information simultaneously all over the country for better impact.”

Though encouraged by success stories, experts listed legislative and regulatory framework as a threat to the survival of community radio. In many parts of the world where the government has not provided licences or opened up air space for community radio, people have used innovative means to make their voice heard. At the same time, many community radio stations have faced hostile political representatives and governments.
Despite such barriers, community radio, which has had a relatively low profile in Africa is beginning to have an impact in many African countries. Civil society experiments coupled with strong advocacy efforts in Senegal worked so well in providing a voice to rural marginalised communities that even the government joined the fray. It voluntarily started providing funding to community radio stations. New information and communication technologies and the Internet have also enabled people to create their own media space in Africa.

President of AMARC Africa, Grace Githaiga said that community radio has created a forum for African women to express their views. Narrating experiences of women with radio, Githaiga said: “Women are managing radio stations in rural areas and for the first time in their lives are being able to articulate their poverty and helplessness themselves and in their own language. At the same time, people who listen to these programmes walk into the radio stations, speak to the manager and air their opinion, something that is impossible to do with mainstream media.”

Experts voiced hope that the global congress will take up their plea to provide more legitimacy and space to community radio as a strong and effective development communication tool.

----------------------
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com www.bnnrc.net

A single country won't be allowed to govern Internet: Seminar calls for unity among poor nations
Bytesforall News

A single country will not be allowed to govern the Internet, speakers at a national seminar vowed adding expectation of the poor countries should be addressed in the upcoming Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

All the countries need to participate in the process of governing Internet. Bangladesh and other poor countries should work together to protect their interest in the field of Internet and other areas of ICT, they observed.

Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) and Monthly Computer Jagat, an ICT magazine, arranged the 'National Seminar on Internet Governance' at the conference room of Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS) in Dhaka on October 14.

Abdullah H Kafi, one of the members of the advisory council of IGF, moderated the seminar while T I M Nurul Kabir, chief executive officer of Spinnovation Ltd, made a keynote presentation pinpointing on different aspects of Internet governance being discussed globally.

Speaking at the seminar, Kafi said: "Expectation of the poor countries should be addressed in the Internet Governance Forum. Bangladesh and other poor countries should work together to protect their interest in this regard."

He termed language a big problem in different countries in using Internet, saying a person needs to have at least some skills to use it. "We are not poor in quality of knowledge but international language such as English is certainly a barrier for us."

Many people face problem with the foreign language, he said stressing the need for developing content in local language to increase usage of Internet.

Referring to the poor role of the ministry of science and ICT, Kafi, also a former president of BCS, said this ministry has the lowest budget allocation. As a task force headed by the Prime Minister looks after the ICT related issues, the ministry does not have any role to play.

Bazlur Rahman, chief executive officer of BNNRC, said it must be made clear that a single country should not be allowed to govern the Internet and all the countries need to participate in this process.
"ITU can be given the responsibility of governing the Internet but a reform must be made in this global body before taking the decision in that case," he mentioned.

In his speech, Nurul Kabir mentioned telecentre movement is already there in Bangladesh but there is no coordination at the national level. "We will not able to move forward without knowledge sharing and people will not be benefited."

There is no follow up regarding WSIS action plan and a national committee has not been formed yet in Bangladesh, he said. "So, we are not in a position to review anything on WSIS action plan.
"We should use ICT as a tool in all the areas if we really want to see the economic development in the country," he noted adding that ICT has not been reflected in the agenda of national politics.
Citing poor progress in utilizing the huge bandwidth of submarine cable, he mentioned the country was linked with the global information superhighway at the cost of huge foreign currency but there has not been adequate 'last mile solution' to reap benefits from it.

Poor village people can't afford high cost of broadband service to have access to the Internet, he said and added broadband policy could be a part of the national ICT policy, criticising bureaucratic red-tapism.

Participating in the discussion, Ahmed Swapon, executive director of Voice Bangladesh urged the participant to think what role Bangladesh can play in the IGF.
"We need to keep in mind that who is benefited by the global policy issues," he said wondering whether least developed countries (LDCs) including Bangladesh have necessary capacity and knowledge.

As many a people illiterate, a participant emphasized on creating more multimedia content.
Md Faizullah Khan, president of BCS thanked all the participants, saying BCS would extend all kinds of support in the future so that everybody can be benefited through debates.

Internet governance is one of the highly discussed issues in the world information society arena since 2003. It is one of the two unresolved issues of the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) Conference.

To resolve the issue United Nations has formed a high level Internet Governance Forum and assigned it to come up with recommendations.

The first international meeting of the forum will be held in Athens, the capital city of Greece from 30th September to 2nd November, 2006.
On the eve of the Athens meeting, civil society organizations organized the seminar.

(By Monjur Mahmud)

Bangladesh:
National Seminar on Internet Governance

Internet governance is one of the highly discussed issues in the world information society arena since 2003.
It is one of the two unresolved issues of the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) Conference. To resolve the issue United Nations has been formed an high level Internet Governance Forum and assigned them to come up with recommendations.

According to the process the first international meeting of the forum will be held in Athens, the capital city of Greece from 30th September to 2nd November, 2006.

On the eve of the meeting Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) and Monthly Computer Jagat will arrange a seminar at the Conference Room of Bangladesh Computer Samity in Dhaka on 14th October 2006. The program will start at 10am and will continue till 1pm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dated: 14 October, 2006, 10:00 AM to 1:00
Venue: Conference Room of Bangladesh Computer Samity
Sonar Tari Tower( 13 Floor)
Bangla Motor, Sonargaon Road, Dhaka
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The objectives of the seminar are:
-Review the present situation and practice of the internet governance in Bangladesh.
-Role of the government of Bangladesh on internet governance.
-Role of the different sectors to disseminate information up-to rural level through internet.

We solicit your participation.




----------------------
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo@bnnrc.net, bnnrc@bd.drik.net,
bnnrc@siriusbb.com www.bnnrc.net

Rangpur international workshop sparks telecentre movement in Bangladesh

More than 100 participants were back with great inspiration and enthusiagm after their return from international workshop titled building telecentre family in Bangladesh was held on 27-29 August, 2006 at RDRS, Rangpur successfully. This event, first of its kind in Bangladesh , was organized by Dhaka-based renowned research organization Development Research Network (D.Net). The inspiring event was also come to a break through with collaboration of BNNRC (Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication) and YPSA (Young Power in Social Action). The event was supported by telecentre.org , Canada and United Nations' Development Program (UNDP).
Rising of the sun
The international workshop in Rangpur brought all the telecentre operators and organizations interested in building telecentres together under a single roof to learn about each other to develop their capacity building through sharing of knowledge-based experiences and cooperation to spark the telecentre movement in Bangladesh.
The event was filled with a 3-day international workshop that included several informative sessions, with open discussions with questions and answers among participants and distinguished speakers, various types of group exercise and fu