State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Saturday said that the government will always remain committed to ensuring press freedom.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a discussion titled ‘Media for the World: Journalism to Solve the Environment Crisis’ organised by the Editors’ Council at the National Press Club in the capital, marking the World Press Freedom Day-2024.
“The government is working to ensure press freedom. I don’t see any room for conflict here. Journalists needs a friendly work atmosphere to collect accurate information. The government give will full support to them. It’s a part of the government policy,” Arafat said.
He also said those who will come forward in the greater interest of the people will get full support from me and the ministry. No matter how hard the reality is at the grassroots, they will be given protection, he added. The state minister also
voiced concern over the spread of disinformation like in politics and various professions.
“I have sat with all the organisations concerned after taking charge. Everyone wants closure of the media outlets which are not registered. We are making a list of all the online newspapers, including news portals. “We also see non-journalism. My journalist friends are also talking about it. Apart from this, many portals have been opened for non-journalism. Give me the list of such portals to the ministry. I will tell BTRC to close them. I’m going to take action in response to the demand of the journalists’ organisations.
The NOAB president said doing journalism is very difficult outside the city. Journalists are given protection in Dhaka but they do not get available protection outside Dhaka. We will work to make sure of that all journalists work under full protection.
At the same time, the state minister mentioned that there is a lot of practice of non-journalism, a lack of professionalism, which hurts professional journalists the most.
He said that all the journalist organisations want minimum qualification of the media people and stressed the need for discipline in journalism. “We don’t believe in regulation of journalism.”
The state minister said that there is also a lot of about a proposed media workers’ law in Parliament. Later, the proposed law was sent to Parliamentary Standing Committee.
“I’ll start working on the law again. We’ll discuss with all the journalist organisations on the proposed law. Two representatives from each journalist bodies will be invited to the talks. After discussion, we will pass it in Parliament.
Editors’ Council President and The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam presided over the meeting moderated by Newspaper Owners’ Association (NOAB) President AK Azad.
Bonik Barta Editor Dewan Hanif Mahmud. Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman, Bhorer Kagoj Editor and National Press Club General Secretary Shyamal Dutta, Inqilab Editor AMM Bahauddin, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan and Desh Rupantar Acting Editor Mostafa Mamun, among others, were present at the programme.
