The three-days long national level workshop entitled ‘The Mission Pittsburgh’ of the Bhutan News Service (BNS) successfully completed in Pittsburgh, PA on Oct 13.
The workshop was a brainstorming session for the BNS volunteers and participants. Friends and volunteers from various states including cities of Pennsylvania gathered in Baldwin Library for the first day of the session.
While for the second day, the participants drove to downtown Pittsburgh at the DHS building, to sit down and chalk out the future strategies of BNS.
The first day was mostly the day of presentations from community leaders and friends of BNS.
Radio journalist Lisa Napoli from Los Angeles, CA and Lonnie Isabel, Director of International Reporting Program at the City University of New York facilitated the training on the first day followed by a couple of presentations and some informal discussion sessions.
BNS contributing editors RP Subba and Bhagirath Khatiwada, Executive Director of the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire Tika Acharya, and Padam Rizal, who has been writing Dagapela series for BNS, also presented their papers during the workshop.
The second day started with the discussions among all the participants about the proposed short and long term goals by the BNS. Major highlights of the event were blogged live throughout the workshop.
Some of the major suggestions/recommendations made by the panel discussions that need to considered by BNS include:
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- Registration of BNS sooner than later
- Exploration of the option of registering BNS not just in United States, but also to see if other countries have more flexible laws
- Addition of more manpower to the team; setting up representative in all places where Bhutanese dwell
- Adoption of strong editorial policy sooner than later
- Establishment of relationship with other giant media bodies that eventually can train and support BNS, among others.
- Inclusion of more news materials in Nepali language
- Exploration of revenue sources such as paid ‘matrimonial & obituary column’
- Documentation of more history/culture
- Improvement of language and words selection both in news and other analytical pieces
“This discussion came forth with the immediate need and research about the registration process, strong editorial policies, and also partner with the media organizations in local, regional, national and also international level,” said Editor-In-Chief Buddha Mani Dhakal.
We extensively discussed on the recommendations made by the participants and the resolutions have been taken to have strong editorial policies further, added Dhakal.
“The event was possible because generous contributors funded this event. I like to thank every donor for joining the mission,” Dhakal added.
The Bhutanese Community Association of Pittsburgh (BCAP) hosted the ‘Mission Pittsburgh’. Speaking at the closing ceremony, BCAP President Kishor Pradhan said the Pittsburgh community was proud to host the historic event of the Bhutan News Service.
“We are glad that BNS decided to hold its first national level training and networking workshop in Pittsburgh. We are really proud to host such a program of the exile media hub,” said Pradhan.
Representatives from the Bhutanese Community of New Hampshire (BCNH) mentioned during the closing session that they were willing to locally host the similar kind of workshop for BNS the next time it is decided.
Click here to see the list of the sponsors of the event.
Click here to see the LIVE reporting of the event.
A video clip of panel discussion
