Criticising the country’s first-ever media policy, the BNP yesterday alleged that the government was hatching a conspiracy to gag the media in the name of “responsibility and accountability.”
“The government is going to enact a law to put the newspapers, online news agencies and other media in a cage. The law is also being formulated to close the television channels,” Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary general of the party, told a press briefing held at the BNP’s Nayapaltan headquarters.
“The BNP thinks that it is a strategy to establish Baksal [one-party rule] in the country,” he said while calling upon the government to backtrack from such a decision to control the media.
The cabinet yesterday approved the draft of National Broadcast Policy 2014 with a provision to ban broadcasting anything that demeans the armed forces or law enforcement agencies.
The BNP leader alleged that the Awami League government had become authoritarian, resulting in deterioration in the country’s law and order.
“The more days the government will stay in power, the more sufferings the people will have to face. We can only overcome the situation by waging a movement to oust the government,” he said.
BNP’s key ally Jamaat-e-Islami said the government was formulating the media policy to establish “one-party rule” in the country, destroying democracy.
“The government is going to formulate the new media policy to gag the media, but the people of the country will not accept such a media policy,” Shafiqur Rahman, acting secretary general of the party, said in a statement.
However, Awami League Advisory Council Member Suranjit Sengupta said: “The government has to be careful that the freedom of media is not be curtailed through the media policy. The issue is very sensitive. The government has to be very careful about the formulation of the policy to give democracy an institutional shape.”
Addressing a programme in the capital, he also said the government, at the same time, should be tough to stop yellow journalism.
