Speakers for uniform policy, rules for all media

Speakers at a roundtable on the National Broadcast Policy have demanded one set of guidelines and rules for all types of media in Bangladesh.
Separate policies will cause conflicts among them, said a participant of the discussion – National Broadcast Policy 2014: Concerns and Recommendations – organised by ‘Article 19’ Sunday, according to a news agency.
Information technology expert Mustafa Jabbar asked why separate regulations were needed for different types of media.
“It is 2014 and we are talking about a broadcast policy but technology has brought us to a different place. Are we talking about a policy for what we singularly understand as media?
There was a wage board for newspapers but why not television journalists, he asked. “Those who will work for online media in the future, will anyone be there for them?
“There is a Press and Publications Act for newspapers, so why are we still looking for broadcast laws for TV?”
Jabbar was part of both the committees set up to create draft policies for broadcast and online media.
Discussing the new policy without paying thorough attention to existing laws surrounding media was a futile exercise, said Jabbar.
Journalist Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul agreed with Jabbar on the idea of a combined media policy.
“The demand was made by the Dhaka Union of Journalists. We at the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists also want it. We are agreed on this,” he said.
 “The 1974 Newspaper Services Act was just about workers of the newspaper media. Online media has been inserted there,” said the BFUJ chief.