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Bangladesh Betar

autonomous · partial (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
A S M Zahid
Role
Director General
Annual budget
৳2,100,000,000
Staff
2900
Established
1971
Legal basis
Bangladesh Betar Authority Act 2001 (Act No. ... of 2001; bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd act-878); operates under functional framework of National Broadcasting Authority Ordinance 1988; precursor legal instruments include post-independence transfer of All India Radio Dhaka station following 1971 liberation.

Operating under BNP-led government's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (Minister: Zahir Uddin Swapon); subject to pending independent media commission reform and a proposed Bangladesh-Turkey technical cooperation MoU; Media Reform Commission's earlier recommendation to merge Betar, BTV, and BSS into a single National Broadcasting Corporation remains unimplemented.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

established_year set to 1971 (Bangladesh independence, when Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra was reconstituted as Bangladesh Betar) per schema constraint (>=1947); radio transmission in Dhaka began December 16, 1939 under All India Radio as noted in mandate. Verification status is 'partial': the current DG A S M Zahid is confirmed from two independent sources (betar.gov.bd official contact page and multiple BSS/TBS news articles from August 2025), but his exact appointment date is not available from any primary source retrieved. The previous DG Md. Salah Uddin was appointed November 2024 (ABU announcement); before him Rabindra Sri Barua was appointed February 27, 2024 (AIBD + BCRA sources). Zahid appears to have taken the role sometime in early 2025 after Salah Uddin; no gazette notification found. Budget figure of Tk 2.1 billion for FY2024-25 comes from Prothom Alo (October 2024) citing accounts department officials; no FY2025-26 Betar-specific allocation found in national budget documents searched. Staff count of approximately 2,900 across 14 centres from same Prothom Alo source (corroborated by same article citing 3,000 including contract staff). Legal basis: Bangladesh Betar Authority Act 2001 (bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-878) found via search but full text inaccessible; National Broadcasting Authority Ordinance 1988 also cited in academic and regulatory sources as foundational. The Media Reform Commission's merger recommendation (BTV + Betar + BSS into one entity, to be called National Broadcasting Corporation) was made March 2025 and remains unimplemented as of May 2026. Broadcasting Ordinance 2026 draft was circulated January 28, 2026 with only 4 days for public comment; as of this verification date it has not been confirmed as promulgated. Turkey MoU event date March 28, 2026 from BSS (bssnews.net/news/372351) is a primary source.

Sources