Staff Reporter :
Media men have welcomed the recent government decision on registration of online news portal with caution that if there was any hidden agenda to curb the freedom of speech, it would affect the smooth growth of online newspapers in the country, insiders said.
The government in a circular on November 10 said, the online media outlet is getting popularity nowadays. In the years to come, it will surpass the popularity of radio, television and newspapers. But in Bangladesh, there is no formal recognition of this media, nor is there any policy yet.On the other hand, the government has set a deadline for the online newspapers to apply for registration by December 15 this year in prescribed forms. The Press Information Department under the Information Ministry will register the online media outlets on verification of the papers submitted and visiting their offices.
Sources at the Information Ministry said the people actually did not make that much response to the draft. But they got opinions from different ministries. Now the ministry is thinking about finalizing the draft taking those into consideration.
Information Ministry’s Additional Secretary Mahbubur Rahman is now acting as the representative of the ministry on the registration process of the online newspapers.
“Many people are writing as they wish in the name of online media. What the government wants is that the responsible houses will do their jobs with responsibility. So, this initiative has been taken. In that case the professional houses need not be worried,” he said.
Though the government has been talking about the online policy for years, it is yet to take a shape. The people concerned expected that the online mass media outlets would get the recognition as the mainstream media outlets under the policy.
Information Secretary Martuza Ahmad said, to strengthen the online mass media outlets, the government facilities should be offered to them. At the same time, there should be some rules and regulations for the newly-emerged sector.
“Many are abusing it. We have taken the initiative taking into consideration everything,” he said.
The government, he said, has started the registration process for the online newspapers for the sake of ensuring government benefits for the online newspaper publishers and stopping yellow journalism.
About this initiative of the government, Online Policy Draft Subcommittee convener and technologist Mostafa Jabbar told media, “Some sort of rule is better than nothing.”
Seeking anonymity, an official at the Information Ministry said a plan was there to start the registration process after framing the policy. But on an instruction from the top level of the government, the Information Ministry started the registration process hastily. In the absence of any government recognition for this newly-emerged sector the online newspapers are being deprived of the government facilities available for mass media. On the other hand, online newspapers are springing up like mushrooms without any control. As a result, the quality is hampered and allegations are also there about yellow journalism.
Replying a question, Additional Chief Information Officer Mohamad Istak Hossain told The New Nation, “We hope the online policy will be framed by December next. So, if we get the applications, we will be able to give the approval under the policy by then.”
On July 21 last a draft policy (National Online Mass Media Policy-2015) was posted on the website of the Information Ministry. It solicited opinions of all on it by August 12 last. As none posted any opinion on it in the first phase, the time was extended to August 31 in the second phase and then again to September 15 in the third phase. Still it failed to draw that much response, the ministry sources said.
When asked about this, bdnews24.com Editor Toufic Imrose Khalidi told media, “Whoever is the news publisher, he must have the registration. All the news publishers and news broadcasters will be under the same legal framework and the same policy, this is quite logical and natural.”
He also said, “The organization of the news publishers across the world is now named as the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. It was earlier named Association of Newspapers. The thing is that some are publishing the news and some are posting it online. The news publication media is expanding. The reason for going into details is that I’m quite doubtful about how aware the people, who are working on this concept, are about it.” Ekramul Haque, editor of Sheershawanews.com told The New Nation, registration is better than no government reorganization for online news portal.
However, he said that rules and regulation are better for online media, but misuse of the rules and interference in publishing news is bad.
