Like many other economies around the world, the economy of Bangladesh is also at a standstill amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The crisis has largely affected the newspaper industry and it is nearly on the verge of collapse. Sale of newspapers has plummeted, so did the amount of advertisement.
Thus, the survival of the newspapers, the fourth pillar of the state, should become a national concern. The free press is essential for good governance. The newspapers are not just a private commercial business of profit and losses. Clean newspaper is nowhere a good business concern. Extra considerations are due the press for the good of the government and the people.
In such dire times, only the government intervention in the forms of a stimulus package, incentives, bank loans on easy terms, and payment of the large sums of advertisement bills, which are long due, can save this industry. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Information has taken steps to pay unpaid advertisement bills.
Against this backdrop, implementation of 9th Wage Board sounds silly. The government has to know financial realities of the newspapers.
The constitution of the Wage Board is such award is decided by the government. The owners have no role. Please don’t try to make the journalists government employees without paying by the government. This has been the suggestion of owners that the Wage Board should truly be independent and not government adjunct. We demand representative in the Board. We have the example in India.
Meanwhile, the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB), in a statement on Friday, said many of the newspapers are unable to maintain the regular payment of their employees. Those who have decided to continue publishing have had to adopt cost-cutting techniques in order to keep up by reducing the number of pages, volume of printing, coloured pages, as well as cutting down on other administrative expenses.
According to the Department of Films and Publications (DFP), under the prevailing pandemic, only 86 newspapers out of 340 are being published in capital Dhaka, eight divisional towns and concerned districts. Many newspapers have stopped publishing and shifted online. Although NOAB had held multiple meetings with the Information Ministry regarding the present state of the newspaper industry because of the pandemic, the outcome has not been fruitful.
The government has helped other sectors of industry. The garment is most preferred sector for government assistance. But try to find out that most of the garment owners are hugely rich with properties in foreign countries. The workers are exploited and buyers are unhappy about it.
Helping newspapers mean helping the journalists and other workers engaged in newspaper industry. The owners do help not for the benefit of profit of the owners.
