Criticism essence of democracy

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said journalists should not be afraid of criticism, reports BSS.
The government is respectful to the media and believes it has an important role to play in any democratic polity, but it does not mean that they have the right to abuse freedom.
The minister was speaking at a seminar at the National Press Club organised by the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) on "World Press Freedom Day."
Referring to press items printed in a section of the media, the minister said the press should focus on the essence of reality. "They should not try to pass off stray incidents as typical of the current situation," he said.
He cited a news report and photograph that showed a man pulling a plough. The minister said he had checked on it and found that the person concerned had power tillers and tractors at his disposal.
"This is misleading information. It is rare to find even bullocks that plough the fields these days. Most often than not it is power tillers and tractors which do the heavy work in the country," he said. "Such practices are unethical", the minister observed.
Referring to the country's current politics he said there was trouble in less than 150 centers out of approximately 3,000 centres in the three city corporations. Therefore, any reports of the few trouble spots were not representative of the polls, he added.
"If 50 per cent or more polling centres were problematic only then could the election be called off," he said.
However, he asked all concerned to come up with specific charges of vote rigging within the next 72 hours and that he would look into those.
He appealed to the media to be objective and fair. He once again asked them not to maintain equidistance between freedom fighters and war criminals, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and arsonist and terrorist Khaleda Zia, in the name of objectivity.