The Bangladesh Press Council has rejected an appeal filed by the Daily Dinkal authorities challenging an order to close down the newspaper.
The Dhaka district authorities ordered the shutdown of the newspaper on December 26 last year, but it continued operations after submitting an appeal to the Press Council, headed by a top High Court judge.
The council rejected the appeal on February 19, upholding the district magistrate's order to stop the newspaper's publication.
The newspaper was accused of violating Articles 10, 11, 16, 21(1)(kha) of The Printing Presses and Publications (Declaration and Registration) Act-1973.
Recently, the declarations of eight other Bengali dailies and one English daily published from Dhaka were cancelled due to irregular operations.
A notification in this regard was issued on September 8 under the signature of the Dhaka district magistrate. The newspapers are Purva Alo, Dainik Janoseba, Gana Awaaz, Dhaka Prakash, Jatir Kantha, Kisan, Ei Desh Ei Din, Somoyer Pata o Reporter and The Financial Daily.
On Sunday, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said the government is working to cancel the declarations of newspapers that are not published regularly. “The declarations of 100 such newspapers have already been cancelled,” he added.
Regarding the action against the Daily Dinkal, sources said the newspaper had a very low circulation. Moreover, the existing laws do not permit any convicted criminal to operate as a publisher. At the same time, a publisher must hand over her or his responsibility to someone else if s/he stays out of the country for more than six consecutive months.
The publisher of the Daily Dinkal, BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, has been living in the UK on parole since 2008 without handing over his job to another person. Yet there was an exception to the law in the case of Dainik Dinkal.
Moreover, the daily has shifted its office and printing press without prior notice, another law violation.
Sources said the authorities kept the opportunity open for the newspaper to come back to circulation after it gets the approval from the district magistrate upon maintaining the proper procedure.
Moreover, the Press Council is duty-bound to cancel the declaration of newspapers that do not respect the existing publication laws of the country.
