Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mamud on Friday said media plays a very important role in shaping the life of people and building a nation.
He made the remark while speaking at a function at the Impress Group office in the capital's Tejgaon area, marking the 23rd anniversary of Channel i Television.
Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Junaid Ahmed Palak, eminent musicians Farida Parveen and Saadi Mohammad and Channel i director Shykh Seraj were, among others, present.
Channel i managing director Faridur Reza Sagar gave welcome address through videoconferencing.
Hasan, also the joint general secretary of the ruling Awami League, said the Channel i is one of the unique examples regarding the work of nation building.
Holding the spirit of the Liberation War, the private TV channel worked in the last 22 years to reach the country to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's promised destination, he said, hoping that this TV channel would continue its efforts to do so in the future too.
About the mobile court drives being conducted from today to implement ad-free (clean-feed) broadcasting of foreign TV channels, the information minister said if advertisements are not aired in foreign channels violating laws, the country's media industry would be benefited and thus the country's economy would get benefited too.
He said the country's economy, arte, culture and media industry are being affected because of not running clean-feed and that is why the government has taken an initiative to this end.
Replying to a question over the OTT (over-the-top) platform, Hasan said works are underway to formulate a policy on the OTT platform.
"A draft policy has already been formulated. Once the policy is announced, the platforms must follow it and legal actions could be taken against the platforms violating the policy," he said.
