Bangladesh’s journalists on Friday continued their boycott of Bangladesh Bank Governor and former senior secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder.
He joined in the traditional post-budget press conference in the capital, organized by the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali moderated the program.
After reading his written speech, the minister opened a question-answer session for the journalists over budget, which was placed in the national parliament on Thursday.
As the floor opened for journalists, Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) President Mohammad Refayet Ullah Mridha said: “The central bank governor banned journalists from the premises of Bangladesh Bank. Following the decision, we decided none of us would listen to him."
“I draw your attention to the fact that he should not make any speech in the press conference. If he does, we will boycott the program.”
During this time, members of the media who were at the program raised their voices and said “Shame for Rouf, Shame for Rouf.”
The central bank governor usually answers several questions in the previous post-budget press conferences, to justify their budget proposals, but this year the governor did not engage in conversation with reporters.
The rest of the officials, however, participated in the question-answer session.
