September 6, 2006
Posted: September 11, 2007
Chrono Satellite Broadcast (CSB) News
SHUTDOWN
The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) ordered CSB to close for seven days. BTRC said a document applying for a frequency in October 2006 was forged in order to meet a filing deadline. BTRC officials and security personnel walked in to the CSB office and switched off its transmission at 6:34pm, according to Mohammad Ali Zakir, company secretary of CSB’s owner, Focus Multimedia Company Ltd. The officials also issued a show cause notice to CSB asking it to explain within seven days why the frequency allocated to CSB would not be cancelled permanently while it remained off air for seven days.
Local media speculated the forgery charges were fabricated and that the closing had more to do with CSB’s broadcasting student demonstrations in Dhaka. The media reports said that in a meeting the day before the closure, officials said the station had played a “provocative role” by transmitting pictures of the violence.