Canada to closely watch broadcast policy of BD: envoy

Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Heather Cruden has said they will continue to watch very closely Bangladesh’s broadcast policy and its possible implications as Canada strongly believes in the freedom of media. ‘We’ll continue to watch very closely and to engage with our colleagues in the media… this is an issue we will continue to monitor very closely,’ Cruden said while meeting diplomatic correspondents in the city on Monday. The Canadian diplomat, however, said she has not yet seen an approved English version of the national Broadcast Policy 2014 and is relying ‘very much’ on newspaper reports to understand what the possible implications can be. Responding to a question, the envoy said they hope that violence that has ceased after the January 5 parliamentary elections and brought relief would not restart with the call of movement (by BNP). ‘We all hope that violence won’t start again,’ she said adding that they will continue to hope that the movement will not get involved with violence as violence is not good for Bangladesh and its people. She laid emphasis on building trust between the two political parties to see a shift in political culture, saying ‘obviously we would like to see a space for people to have peaceful protests,’ according to a news agency.