Nineteen newspapers have so far implemented the 8th Wage Board Awards and an eight- member monitoring team has been working for implementation of the awards, said information minister Hasanul Haq Inu on Monday, reports BSS.
Replying to a question in the Jatiya Sangsad from Jatiya Party lawmaker AKM Maidul Islam, the information minister said implementation of the Wage Board Awards is an ongoing process.
The newspapers that have implemented the awards are: the Daily Ittefaq, the Daily Bonik Barta, the Prothom Alo, The Financial Express, The Bangladesh Today, The News Today, The Daily Star, The New Age, The New Nation, The Independent, the daily Sun, the Kaler Kantho, Samokal, Amader Somoy, Daily Bartaman, Daily Amar Sangbad, The Dhaka Tribune and Daily Swadesh Sangbad of Mymensingh and Daily Baher Sangsad of Rangpur.
Responding to another question from treasury bench member Subid Ali Bhuiyan, Hasanul Haq Inu said the government believes in full freedom of the mass media. The print and electronic media disseminate news with full freedom maintaining their own style and the government does not interfere in it, he said.
State -owned news agency 'BSS' feeds the media with news items collecting information from across the country, he added.
The minister said the information ministry has been giving financial assistance to insolvent, sick and wounded journalists, and family members of the deceased journalists. Under the Insolvent Journalists Assistance Allowance/Grants Policy 2012, the ministry got an allocation of Tk 5.0 million in the fiscal year 2011-12, Tk 10 million in 2012-13 and Tk 10.1 million in 2013-14, he said.
Taka 5.0 million were given to a total of 61 journalists in the fiscal year 2011-12, Tk 10 million to 185 journalists in 2012-13 and Tk 2.4 million to 21 journalists in 2013-14, the minister added.
