Please be careful while presenting news, PM to journalists
Friday, 18 July 2014
Welcoming criticisms from journalists over her government’s various programmes, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged Friday the media people to be careful so that their criticisms do not hamper the country’s development, according to a news agency.
“You can criticise, but please remain careful so that your criticisms don’t obstruct the country’s development and earn bad name for Bangladesh,” she said.
The Prime Minister was speaking at an Iftar party at the Jatiya Press Club jointly organised by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists’ (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ).
BFUJ secretary general Abdul Jalil conducted the programme where Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu, BFUJ president Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, DUJ president Altaf Mahmud and DUJ general secretary Quddus Afrad spoke.
The Prime Minister said the present government enhanced the dignity of journalists through amending the CrPC which protects the media people from arrest if any criminal case is filed against them. “Now it only has the provision of summon by the court.”
Hasina requested the journalists not to misuse this privilege by writing false and cooked news items. “Sometimes we see such news that is totally false and fabricated. Such news hurt us a lot.”
Talking about various facilities ensured for journalists, the Prime Minister said her government for the first time constituted the ‘Journalists Welfare Fund’ with a seed money of Tk 10 million. Later, the fund was raised to Tk 30 million.
Replying to journalist leaders’ demand for plots for them through a cooperative, Hasina assured them of looking into the matter. “But you’ll have to ensure that this facility won’t be just for the journalists in Dhaka. You have to introduce this for all the journalists living outside the capital.”
Referring to the lack of press freedom during the military regime after the killing of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, she said there was no independence of journalists after 1975. “Ensuring the freedom of press is not possible without democracy, and the Father of the Nation ensured that in the constitution.”