RURAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT FOR PROMOTING DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN BANGLADESH​

Project period: December 2014 – November 2016

The project is funded by UNDEF

Bangladesh still has to go a long way to establish democracy and ensure human rights as enshrined in the country’s constitution.

In a democratic society, media is considered to be the fourth estate of the nation. It continuously plays the role by monitoring the policies and activities of the government, policymakers, officials and politicians. Also, it ensures people’s access to information so that they can make an informed decision, an essential ingredient of democracy in any country.

With this understanding, News Network implemented the project, “Rural Media Development for Promoting Democracy and Human Rights in Bangladesh” in 12 remote districts of the country. The project was aimed at improving the media and civil society organisations’(CSOs) ability in rural areas to report on democracy and human rights issues, and thereby raising public awareness of their rights. The key activities of the project were: (i) training and sensitizing rural journalists on democracy and human rights issues; (ii) reporting competitions among the trained journalists; (iv) media training for CSOs staff; (v) interactive meetings of the trained journalists and CSOs officials and workers in project areas; (vi) web advocacy for promoting democracy and human rights; and (vii) build up network among trained journalists and CSOs.

The News Network with the assistance from United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF)addressed the project to promote democracy and human rights in project areas. The participating journalists and CSOs emphasised on the need for replicating the programme in other districts of the country and form a platform to connect the beneficiaries and improvement of fragile democratic situation persisting in the country.  

PROJECT AREA