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National Broadcast Policy

Some provisions confusing, contradictory

Discussants tell Mass-line Media Centre discussion

Staff Correspondent
Some provisions of the National Broadcast Policy-2014 are confusing, contradictory and disastrous for the freedom of media and the government must amend those when enacting a law for the policy's full implementation, speakers told a seminar yesterday.
Stakeholders and civil society members must seriously engage themselves in the amendment process to have a media friendly law, they added.
Mass-line Media Centre (MMC) organised the
seminar, "Broadcast Policy and Right to Information", at the Azimur Rahman Conference Hall at The Daily Star Centre in the capital.
Addressing as chief guest, former information commissioner Sadeka Halim said there was concern brewing among people centring the issue of the policy's formulation preceding the independent broadcast commission's formation.
Referring to different laws and policies including the right to information act, the professor of sociology at Dhaka University said the broadcast
policy was a "cut and paste of many laws and policies".
Moreover, one provision states that the commission will be independent while another says that the information ministry will decide on matters which are not in the policy or are in conflict with other policies and laws, added Sadeka.
However, the fact that they are still able to discuss about the policy is a sign that democracy still exists, something the country was devoid of after 1975, she said.
Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, chief editor of Boishakhi Television, said the prime concern was the provision which states that the broadcasters must formulate, in line with the policy, a specific charter of duties and an editorial policy, both of which must be approved by the broadcast commission.
"If all the media have similar editorial policies or charter of duties then question arises as to whether the government's intention is to control the media through
it," he said.
It is universal that the media, which are diverse in nature, will have independent and separate editorial policies, added the president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists.
He said the overall language and content of the policy should have been suggestive, not in the form of directives.
As a whole, Bulbul supported the policy, saying, “I don't see anything bad if the law aims at bringing accountability and ensuring transparency in the media."
Shamsul Bari, chairperson of Research Initiatives, Bangladesh, chaired the seminar where Shahab Enam Khan, chairperson of the international relations department at Jahangirnagar University, and journalist Mizanur Rahman Khan of Prothom Alo also took part as discussants.
Mosabber Hossain, a project director, and Arshad Siddiqui, chief of operation of MMC, also spoke at the seminar, moderated by Kamrul Hassan Manju, executive director ofMMC.