Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Sunday said the Press Council was working to create a database of journalists with a view to bringing fake journalists to book.
“Once the database is created, identifying oneself as a journalist will become tough. As a result, the number of fake journalists will drop,” said Hasan.
Hasan was speaking at a views exchange meeting with the Editors Forum in his ministry’s meeting room.
During the meeting, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, advisor of the Forum, said that journalists must work according to the spirit of the liberation war, while Rafiqul Islam Ratan, convener of the Forum, said that there is no scope to air talk shows or news bulletins on the websites of newspapers or on online news portals according to the Printing Presses and Publications (Declaration and Registration) Act, 1973.
Leaders of the Editor’s Forum submitted a 10-point memorandum to Hasan at the meeting.
The demands include—refraining from providing government advertisements and supplements to and cancelling the registrations of irregular and weak newspapers, paying outstanding advertisement bills, reorganizing the circulation-determining process of newspapers, not appointing unqualified journalists as editors, designating VIP status to the members of the Editors Forum and enabling the Information Ministry to provide declarations to newspapers.
The minister thanked the forum for agreeing with the Association of Television Channel Owners (Atco) that talk shows and news bulletins cannot be broadcast by newspapers.
“Newspapers can publish short videos with their news, not talk shows or news bulletins. The existing law prohibits such practice,” Hasan said.
Member Secretary of the Editor’s Forum Faruk Ahmed Talukder, Advisors of the Forum Azizul Islam Bhuiyan, Sharif Shahabuddin and Belayet Hossain, and Members of the Forum Dulal Ahmed Chowdhury, Mir Moniruzzaman, Mofizur Rahman Khan Babu, Rimon Mahfuz, Nazmul Alam Toufiq and Jagdish Chandra Sarker attended the meeting.
