Hacked  By  r4dBlack

THIMPHU: More than two weeks after the weekly Bhutan Times (BT), the first privately owned newspaper in Bhutan, declared a loss of Nu 5.39 million and underwent a change of management, its editor and six of its 12 reporters resigned yesterday, citing “persistent editorial interference from the management”.

“We’re resigning primarily to protect independent journalism in Bhutan and live up to our professional principles and values,” said editor Gopilal Acharya. He refused to elaborate further. The editor, chief reporter and five reporters submitted a joint resignation letter at 4.10 pm yesterday. The reporters refused to comment.

The resignation letter reads, “Following persistent editorial interference by the management, the following newsroom staff hereby submit our resignation. This is to be taken as a month’s notice from our side, however, our resignation is effective from today.”

The CEO and new chairman of BT, who took over management on October 1, Wangcha Sangey, said they terminated their services themselves, so BT did not have a choice but to comply with their decision. “They were actually conspiring to bring down the company, through which they earned their livelihood for the past three years and got trained,” he said.

Wangcha Sangey said the reason for their resignations was not true at all. “Since I joined, I made one request to them that, while freedom of speech is very important, we shouldn’t forget that we’re Bhutanese and that you can slur a ministry if it’s wrong but not Bhutan as a nation. We shouldn’t be promoting personal agenda.”

Wangcha Sangey showed written commitments by the reporters to give their full support in working towards salvaging the company. The written commitments were given this week, following a meeting between the management and the editorial team.

When asked whether a court case would follow, as the employees had contracts with the company, Wangcha Sangey said, “I don’t have time to dwell on the contracts and the legality involved.”

Over Nu 900,000 of BT’s money is with the employees in the form of loans, said Wangcha Sangey, adding that those, who had submitted resignations, also owed the company.

Since Wangcha Sangey took over the management, he said that he worked for the interest of the company and the shareholders, with emphasis on improving the financial condition of the company. “We managed to bring down the bank overdraft to less than a million.” BT owes Nu 3m in overdraft loan to the bank of Bhutan.

“What happened was not morally correct and they should have supported the new CEO,” said Bhutan Today’s managing director Tenzin Dorji, adding that it was not true that BT reporters were joining his paper.

The Bhutan Observer editor, Nidup Zangpo, said that this would definitely affect the media scenario in Bhutan. “My immediate reaction was it’s doubtful whether the Sunday issue would come out,” he said.

Wangcha Sangey said that BT won’t disappoint its readers and that it will come out with the Sunday issue. “Even if they feel that they don’t have any obligation to the readers, BT has obligations so I’ll make sure that the issue comes out as scheduled.”

“They didn’t walk out on me but the company. We had too little time to know each other well. They might be planning to come out with a paper of their own, so I wish them luck,” he said.

BT is the only public limited private media company that started on April 30, 2006. Bhutan Observer and Bhutan Today are sole proprietorships. BT has 288 shareholders as of last year, with major shareholders holding 82.26 percent of shares and the remaining 17.74 percent by individual investors.