The Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) aired a public notification on Thursday refuting the allegations made by some of its former employees who had resigned and later joined politics.
According to the BBS management, the former employees, who are now into politics, had alleged that they were wrongfully terminated by the management during their familiarization tours.
Calling the claim baseless, the BBS management maintained that the former employees were never terminated and instead they sought formal resignation from the office.
“If they were terminated, will they keep quiet? Instead they would have made an issue out of it. We have their resignation letter which contains flowery words thanking the management for the support and shaping their future,” the BBS management stated. “They are defaming us. We are apolitical and we are not affiliated to any political party. The announcement which was aired in the BBS was our justification in retaliation to their allegations.”
According to the public notification, a few aspiring candidates have been stating during their visit to the constituencies that they were wrongfully terminated by the BBS. There is no record of the organization having issued termination letters, but the management does have copies of the resignation letter they have submitted to the organization, which are proof that they have resigned voluntarily. Therefore, the BBS management refutes the allegations as baseless and defamatory.
The management said they came to know about the issue after getting written letters from individuals.
“They are real faces with real identities. We haven’t mentioned the names of the candidates or political parties because we don’t want to politicize the issue. It is broadcast in our own defense and we hope that it’ll serve the purpose. It falls on us to safeguard the image of the organization,” the management added.
Meanwhile, some of the former employees of the BBS, who had resigned to join politics, told Business Bhutan that the announcement itself is baseless and vague. They said that they never mentioned about being terminated to anyone, anywhere.
A former BBS employee said he had never mentioned about being terminated and had resigned on his own to join politics.
Another former employee said, “The announcement itself is baseless. I don’t know to whom the BBS management intends to direct this information. Who will take such stupid pride to state that one was terminated and would that not tarnish our own credibility. I resigned on my own as the working environment in the BBS was not comfortable. The BBS cannot abuse national forum for their own vested interest or just a political party says that without verifying with other parties. BBS is favoring and supporting a party and trying to pull those candidates who have joined other political parties. I feel there are still invisible hands in the BBS.”
Another political candidate said such announcement made by the BBS was unprofessional on the part of the management.
“Now if the BBS is to run such an announcement, I think they should have actually verified their source properly. We would like to know their source and we like to know who gave them this information. Who fed them this information before putting it on air and we also would be interested in knowing, in fact the nation would be interested in knowing, whose interest the BBS is trying to protect by running such announcement,” the candidate added.
Another former journalist into politics said, “I love and enjoy working as a journalist and I still want to be a journalist given the opportunity, I never wanted to leave the BBS but so many factors added up. But the BBS should have got our views on broad.”
“As a news organization they have to balance whatever they produce. They don’t even talk to us or verify with us and straight away puts up an announcement. It’s nothing but abusing public recourses and protecting some interests,” the former journalist added.
Questioning the credibility of the management, another candidate said such acts only indicated that there are possibilities of the BBS being politicized; which is very painful and worrying.
“We also deserve the same platform, opportunity to verify and raise our views so that the nation and people are informed. It’s not fair at all not to give opportunity. We also deserve the platform as a bonafide citizen of this country,” he added.
Chencho Dema from Thimphu
