Cable TV operators in many places within the capital has started the downlink of Disney Channel from the following day of the 10th Jatiya Sangsad elections held on Sunday, ignoring the ban imposed on the channel last year for airing Hindi-dubbed Japanese cartoon Doraemon.
The channel is now available in the Eastern part of the capital, though it had a limited broadcast through cables in some parts in Jatrabari and Basabo since the ban was imposed in February last year.
‘My son is really excited as the cartoon is again available on the cable channels. He demands to watch the channel more as he missed many episodes when the ban had been followed, Sarwar Hossian, a parent living in Mugda, told New Age.
Created by manga artist Fujiko F Fujio, Doraemon features a 22nd century robotic cat that travels back in present time and helps an infant boy named Nabita by providing gadgets from the next century.
Following the reports featuring the adverse impact of the Hindi-dubbed Doraemon’s addiction on children on different dailies, the Awami League led government last year banned the cartoon.
‘To ensure children’s smooth educational atmosphere,’ the information minister Hasanul Haque Inu told the parliament last February that television channels [Disney, Disney XD and Pogo], which have been screening Doraemon had been sent official notifications ordering them to take the series off air.
Shahriar Alam, a ruling party lawmaker from Rajshahi, had also demanded in the parliament that television stations should only be allowed to air foreign cartoons if they are dubbed in Bangla. In last November, Alam got permission of Renaissance TV, which is supposed to broadcast cartoons in Bangla.
But many Indian newspapers criticised the government’s decision of banning Doraemon giving such view that Bangladesh is particularly sensitive about the cultural impact of its influential neighbour India with millions of households preferring to watch Hindi-language television beamed in via satellite.
Manzur Hasan Bhuiyan, government appointed administrator of Cable Operators’ Association of Bangladesh, said that he did not know that the channel had been resumed broadcast through cables. ‘I don’t know whether the Channel was banned. I know a cartoon had been banned,’ he said.
‘The ban still continues,’ said the information minister adding that he would look into the issue.
-With New Age input
