By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka, May 25 : Tens of thousands of television viewers in Bangladesh are deprived of watching their favourite programmes, thanks to the army-backed interim government imposing restriction on a number satellite television channels.

The interim government on Tuesday came up with a directive allowing downlink of only 41 channels (12 local and 29 foreign) for transmission in Bangladesh, forcing a number of favourite channels to go off air.

There has been no formal reaction from the viewers and the cable operators, as the country has been passing through a state of emergency since January, and protests in any form are prohibited under the emergency rules.

But, many of the viewers, especially the sports lovers, expressed anger on Friday when the second test match between India and Bangladesh was not showed for an hour on the state-run Bangladesh television.

The people of Bangladesh have to depend on the state-run television for the match, since other private channels have been banned.

"It is like the government started joking ...we cannot watch the favourite programmes, even the sports channels were restricted," one Abul Kalam Azad, who is irritated like many others with the government decision, told ANI.

He wants restoration of all the channels the government put off air in a "whimsical manner."

All the 29 foreign channels, downlinking of which were allowed through a sudden announcement, are in the pay channel category.

The announcement also warned legal action against cable operators if any 'unapproved' channels are transmitted in the country, prompting the operators to suspend the transmission of at least 70 free to air channels.

Some of the channels are quite popular in Bangladesh. Disney World, Travel and Leisure, PTV, NDTV, TV2 (French), Deutsche Welle (DW), Arirang (South Korea), Ten Sports, DD Sports, Neo Sports, Al-Jajira, ETV Bangla, and a host of Hindi and Bengali entertainment channels are among them.

The circular never mention any reason for not allowing the transmission of free to air channels, an official of the information ministry said the government approved those channels that are registered with the ministry and pay taxes, and show decent programmes.

The country's Cable Television Network policy-2006 stipulates that cable operators must have to obtain registration from the information ministry for transmission of programmes of any satellite channels whether it is pay or free to air.

The operators, however, did not follow the requirement in the past years and broadcast programmes of unapproved channel illegally, claimed the information ministry official.

'If a new channel gets government registration and pays taxes and conform to country's values and cultures, we will approve its transmission,' the official, who prefers not to be named, said.

Earlier in April, the military government banned transmission of 10 foreign channels for airing "obscene" contents.

Anowar Parvez, the president of Cable Operators Association of Bangladesh, said the association had sent a list of 42 free to air channels to the information ministry on Wednesday for registration on behalf of all its members.

The association represents about 3,700 cable operators across the country with annual turnover of 100 crores Taka. Currently, there are estimated two crores satellite television viewers in the country.

The government decision would also push up the cost of operators as an operator has to spend 339 Taka per subscribers for airing the programmes of all pay channels.