Editors' Council urges govt for consultation

Editors' Council (Sampadak Parishad) has urged the government to sit with all media stakeholders before finalising the Mass Media Employees (Services Conditions) Bill-2022.
Terming the proposed law anti-media, it says with the adoption of the bill, the media industry and its employees will be further brought under the grip of bureaucracy.
The Council issued a press release on Tuesday, airing its concern.
The bill was placed in parliament on 28 March 2022 by information and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud.
The council maintains that 37 out of 54 sections of the proposed law are not 'journalist-friendly'.
Formation of media court and appeal court will create legal complexities for news organisations and journalists as such courts will gag press freedom, it said.
Editorial institution will also be fully destroyed once the law is enacted, fears the council.
It says, "Owners of media outlets and employees have been made rivals and it (the proposed law) will widen the gap between the two parties."
The law will empower the government to shut a newspaper which was earlier under the draconian "Special Powers Act" that got abolished later, the Council said.
Although the newspaper industry is privately owned, the council fears, the proposed act will pave the way for government intervention to regulate the media.

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