The Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led coalition government is cleaning up the garbage that has piled up during the regimes of military dictators and communal forces, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said yesterday.
He said the people of the country were accustomed to live with military dictatorship, autocracy, communalism.
No one imagined that the razakars and war criminals could ever be tried, punished and executed, the minister said. When these events happened, it came as surprise to the people of the country. They also witness some other abnormal things happening.
Also chief of a faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Inu said during this tenure, when people have been asked to stay away from these elements they are surprised.
He was speaking at the inaugural programme of a workshop titled “Government’s Public Relations and Mass Media” at the Bangladesh Press Institute (PIB).
Addressing as chief guest, the minister termed the ruling government of Hasina a “phase of return” to the non-communal secular spirit which had been present in the original constitution of the country to determine the fundamental character of the newly-born Bangladesh.
“Now we have reinstated secularism in the constitution while communalism has been pushed back.”
Many officers from information cadre service including public relation officers of different ministries and public offices, and senior journalists attended the workshop and exchanged experiences, views and suggestions to enhance the understanding and cooperation between mass media and government’s public relation and communication officials.
PIB Director General Shah Alamgir chaired the inaugural programme and workshop. Editor of the daily Bhorer Kagoj Shaymol Dutta and senior DPIO Mahfuzur Rahman also spoke at the event.
Inu said: “Pet journalists are not journalists at all, like a pet tiger is not a tiger.”
The minister also criticised the role of some media outlets claiming that those were doing yellow journalism by publicising false information and distorted history.
He, however, said some were running reports based on “balancing theory.” “They say ‘these are the bad sides of this leader and these are the bad sides of another leader; so both the leaders are bad.”
He said the information officers of the government were supposed to uphold the spirit of the constitution.
Inu asked them to deal with journalists keeping it in the mind that a tiger must be in the wild; none can adopt a tiger. Similarly, a journalist cannot be a pet journalist; they practice journalism freely.
“It does not matter to a journalist if you [information officer] offer them 10 cups of tea and five sticks of cigarette. Their head is hard; whatever you feed them they will do their report,” the minister said.
Every government has its political pledges and the information officers should be aware of these, he said. “Information officers will work for the government and the administration. They are not a private publicity worker of a minister. They have not been appointed to carry a minister’s bag.”
