Open Data Country Report Bangladesh

"...one of the important stakeholders that can possibly play a role in the propagation of open data or open government data is journalists."

This report from the Media Resources Development Initiative (MRDI) aims to present the current situation of open data access and data journalism in Bangladesh. It looks at some of the challenges and needs from both a supply and a demand side and offers recommendations for supporting open data access and improved use of open data by journalists in particular.

As explained in the report, the Government of Bangladesh mandated in 2016 to make open data a reality in line with its development strategies. The Access to Information Programme at Prime Minister's Office (A2i) initiated a project to increase the accessibility of data among the citizens through an open government data (OGD) portal. The portal was designed to solve the problem of data fragmentation and inaccessibility and to make collected data available to the public through a centralised portal. Despite the creation of the OGD portal, the data download rate and the number of applications created based on the data has been less than expected. As journalists are a key stakeholder in the propagation of open data, this study therefore seeks to explore open data and its use by journalists in data journalism. In particular, the study investigates the following areas: the nature of data infrastructure and platforms; the legal frameworks and their conduciveness to open data and data journalism; open data repositories in Bangladesh and their particular mandates and policies regarding what kind of data are to be made public; an assessment of journalists' capacity to conduct data journalism; an assessment of how journalists make use of the data and how data are collected; and what systems are in place to ensure data quality and data integrity.

This report is based on primary and secondary research. The primary research consisted of key informant interviews and surveys involving government agencies, editors, journalists, data analytics agencies, and civic hackers. All stakeholder groups participated in the key informant interviews, but the survey was only conducted with journalists. The secondary research involved examining existing literature on global open data and data journalism practices.

The findings of the report are divided into the supply side and the demand side of open data. The findings for the supply-side actors mostly concern the provision and availability of open data. They show that in relation to concerns regarding data integrity and quality, supply-side actors maintain that the data collection process incorporates numerous quality control tests in the collection process, that enumerators are well trained, and that computer-assisted personal interviewing methods are implemented to ensure the highest quality of data. Regarding data privacy and security concerns, the research shows that this is taken seriously by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). However, security can be compromised at times, and anonymisation is still not fully uniform across BBS. Regarding the issue of limited data being made available, researchers were told that anyone can request data directly from the BBS if it is not available online. Supply-side stakeholders also shared various challenges faced, which included a lack of awareness within the public and media houses of the benefits of open data.

The findings on the demand side showed that the lack of time owing to demands from media houses make it difficult for journalists to engage in data journalism. But in spite of that, media houses are generally supportive of the pursuit of data journalism. The research also found that the demand-side actors, especially journalists, are not well acquainted with the definition of data journalism, and that journalists are not adequately trained in quantitative and reasoning skills - leading to less participation in data journalism.

The report offers a number of recommendations for the two stakeholder groups, which on the supply side include:

• Ensure data availability and strengthening interoperability - it is important that all kinds of data, as well as full sets of data, are made easily available from open data sources.
• Ensure data is updated - the research showed that journalists and stakeholders often do not have access to updated data. MRDI encourages journalists and media houses to engage the government through the help of civil society organisations to bring attention to this problem.
• Promote a bottom-up approach through mass publicity - the government should undertake initiatives to encourage the uptake of open data and create awareness of the usefulness of open data to social development.
• Improve the usability of open data portals and websites through the provision of dashboards and summaries, as well as data in user-friendly formats.
• Engage with media houses - MRDI urges the government to engage media houses in their discussions and implementation plans for more uptake and usage of open data, and should specifically focus on the needs of media houses.

Recommendations on the demand side include:

• Create awareness of the difference between data journalism and traditional journalism.
• Improve journalists' knowledge about data journalism through practical demonstrations and workshops.
• Increase awareness about the benefits of data journalism to create a strong culture of data use and data appreciation amongst journalists.
• Offer training in quantitative and reasoning skills to ensure that journalists have the skills to make sense of data for effective data journalism.
• Exert "positive pressure" on the government - journalists and editors agree that it is not only the duty of media houses to promote data journalism and that it requires active support from the government and civil societies.