The Government has formed three committees namely National Regulatory Committee, Central Monitoring Committee and Technical Sub-committee to take necessary steps in sorting out, selection, approval and monitoring of the applications and community radio operations.

In the category of expert representative, Government by the Presidential order nominated AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR, Chief Executive Officer of Bangladesh NGOs' Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) as a member of the central monitoring committee headed by Director General of Bangladesh Betar (Radio), Other members of the committee are Director General of Mass Communication Department, Deputy Secretary (Radio) of the Ministry of Information, Deputy Director General (News) of Bangladesh Betar, Chief Engineer of Bangladesh Betar, representative of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), and Deputy Director General (Program) of Bangladesh Betar.More>>

BNNRC has already opened the Community Radio Help Desk with the following help and services to the interested initiators:

a. Help Desk for the Community Radio Enthusiast; Budget and Planning;
b. Assisting in filling up the form and following up with the concerned Department, Ministries and Commissions in this regard;
c. Technical guidance for Studio setup, broadcasting equipments;
d. Assist in acquiring relevant software;
e. Baseline studies and need analysis;
f. Monitoring and Evaluation;
g. Capacity Building including training on radio content production, editing and presentation;
h. Transmission management;
i. Library and Archives;
j. Feedback;
k. Identify partners and funding agencies.

Contact Address
House 13/1, Road 2, Shamoli, Dhaka 1207.
Tel: +88 02 9130750, 9138501, Fax: 9138501 (Ext.-105)
Email: ceo@bnnrc.net, Web: www.bnnrc.net

The community radio network could give the marginalized people of the country access to information and thus play immense role in the development of particular communities, speakers at a daylong international seminar said on Sunday. They said, the prospect of the Community Radio is that it could give voice to the voiceless people, but the rules and procedures of the licensing system should have provisions to ensure that the ownership of the information really remain within the community.
Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC and United News of Bangladesh (UNB) jointly arranged the seminar with the theme “Peoples Voices, Peoples Participation and Community Radio” at the conference room of UNB.

Information Secretary Jamil Osman as Chief Guest inaugurated the seminar while former Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and former Secretary of the Government Syed Margub Morshed was in the chair. Country Director and Representative of UNESCO in Bangladesh Dr Malama Meleisea and Assistant Country Director of UNDP in Bangladesh K A M Morshed addressed the inaugural session as Special Guests.
Among others, Secretary General of AMIC Dr Indrajit Banerjee, Professor of International Institute of Communication, UK Dr Andrew Taussig, Director General of Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) Mohammad Nazrul Islam and Chairman of UNB Amanullah Khan addressed the session. AMIC Head of Research Dr Kalinga Seneviratne presented the keynote paper of the session titled “Overview of Community Radio across Asia: Opportunities and Challenges”.

Please Download the Press Release, Program Schedule

Media Coverage News Today, Independent, Jugantor, Prothom-alo, AmarDesh, Shamokal, Sanbad,

Election of HAP International (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership International) Executive Committee has held following its annual general meeting during 23 and 24th April, 2008 in HAP I secretariat in Geneva .

In this election Mr Rezaul Karim Chowdhury-S21K, BNNRC Vice Chairperson, Execuitve Director COAST Trust and Convenor Equity and Justice Working Gropup(EJWG) has been elected as one of its four executive committee members of HAP International for the next two years period.

HAP-International is an international organization that promote accountability of its member organizations to their benificieries/poor in humanitarian actions. HAP International also provide certification and accredition to its member organizations based on some principles, work plan and its implementation audit.

Several international organizations like Oxfam GB, CARE International, Christian Aid, World Vision International, CAFOD, TearFund, Muslim Aid, Concern Worlwide, MERCY Malaysia are the full members of this organization. From Bangladesh COAST Trust has also got full membership of HAP I very recently. DFID, DANIDA and Swedish SIDA and several others are the associate members of the organization.

Bangladesh government recently invited appliction form to launch Community Radio as piloting basis.For that BNNRC published a guide book for Community Radio Enthusiast on installation of Community Radio, Budget and planning and Many more.

Full Publication at:CR_Policy

Community Radio policy 2008 formulated in Bangladesh.

The government has formulated a policy on the installation, broadcast and operation of community radio to facilitate information dissemination, said a Press Information Department handout on Sunday.

The handout said the communality radio installation, broadcast and operation policy 2008 was posted on the information ministry web site (www.moi.gov.bd) for the people interested in community radio licence.

For English version please visit:CR Policy 2008

The government yesterday extended the deadline for sending opinions and views on the preliminary draft of Right to Information (RTI) Ordinance 2008, till April 3.

An eight-member committee headed by the joint secretary (development) of the information ministry prepared the draft of the ordinance. The draft has 27 articles on the objective of the ordinance, methods of information dissemination, how to seek or disclose information, exemptions from disclosure, formation of the information commission and punishment for not disclosing information.

The draft in Bangla was put on the website of the information ministry www.moi.gov.bd on March 4 to collect public opinion on it.

Those interested to send in opinions are asked to do so through any of the following five e-mail addresses -- www.moisecretary@yahoo.com, addsecmoi@yahoo.com,
isadmn_moi@yahoo.com, jsdev_moi@yahoo.com and jsbmoi@yahoo.com by March 23.

The government decided to extend the time limit to April 3 following requests from different sections of people, a Press Information Department handout said.

For English version please visit: RTI Draft