BTV's biased coverage highlighted

State-owned Bangladesh Television's (BTV) biased news coverage was highlighted by a survey recently which found that it's government-opposition ratio stood at 99:1.

Democracy Watch, an independent watchdog body, found that in its prime news bulletins at 8 p.m., BTV stressed most on the activities of the ruling coalition and the government.

"It spared 47 per cent of its total news coverage for the prime minister and other ministers," it said, adding news value was not considered among such 'wholesale coverage' of the ministers' activities.

BTV blacked out many events of public interest like the killing of politicians and businessmen and a bank robbery that took place during the period, it points out.

The opposition got only 0.62 per cent of the news coverage and that too in a 'negative way'. According to the survey report, BTV's news coverage was 'very weak' and the presentation by its reporters 'substandard'.

The Media Watch unit of Democracy Watch also monitored news bulletins of the three private sector television channels Ekushey Television (ETV), Channel i and ATN Bangla during the period.