The Cabinet on Monday gave its final nod to the draft of Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust Act, 2013 dissolving the poor journalists’ assistance policy on condition of vetting from the law ministry.
The cabinet passed the final draft of the law at a meeting at the Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The law will be sent to current session of the parliament for passage with the vetting of the ministry, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
He said, “According to the draft, journalists and their families will be given financial assistance in cases of deaths, accidents or loosing working capacity.”
Bhuiyan said a 13-member board headed by the information minister that would provide assistance to poor, jobless, ill and disabled journalists. It will also help the families of deceased journalists.
“The government will be in charge of the financial activities of the body which will be entitled to take donations from any individuals or institutions, both locally and abroad,” he added.
Mentioning that the fund would be given from the finance ministry following the proposed budget of the trusty board, he said: “High official public servants, journalists and representatives of civil society organisations will be members of the trusty board which will be a statutory authority. The numbers of journalists will be significantly high in the board.
“The president and secretary general of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) will be the members of the board. Three more journalists will also be nominated for the board by the government,” he added.
The trusty board will provide assistance for poor, jobless, ill and disabled journalists. It will also help the families of deceased journalists. It will also provide scholarships for the journalists and merits for their children.
Earlier, on October 31, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told reporters, “The government is going to enact a new law to form ‘Journalists Assistance Trust Fund’ dissolving the existing Journalists Assistance Policy to help poor and insolvent journalists.”
The government has a fund of Tk10m currently, which will be increased, he added.
