Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister and BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has strongly urged the relaunch of the traditional ‘Dainik Bangla’, ‘Bangladesh Times’ and the popular weekly ‘Bichitra’ to create employment for journalists who became unemployed due to discrimination during the authoritarian rule of the Awami League.
He said, ‘These media outlets have a historical and traditional value. Therefore, they must be restructured and new employment opportunities created.’
He made this call as the chief guest at a discussion organized on the occasion of ‘Black Day of Newspapers’ at the Tafazzal Hossain Manik Mia Hall of the National Press Club in the capital on Tuesday afternoon.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) jointly organized the discussion.
Dhaka Union of Journalists President Md. The event, chaired by Shahidul Islam and moderated by Acting General Secretary Didarul Alam Didar, featured Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan as a special speaker.
BFUJ Secretary General Quader Gani Chowdhury presented the keynote address at the seminar.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, “Although many things in society and technology have changed with the changing times, specific employment opportunities have not been created for all our journalist brothers, which is very unfortunate.
We have a competent Information Minister. I hope he will make the necessary state efforts to reopen these traditional closed media houses.”
He called for creating new media platforms with stakeholders if necessary and providing livelihood for journalists.
Criticizing the political history of the Awami League, the BNP Secretary General said, “If we review history, we see that Awami League and democracy never go together.”
The one-party Baksal of 1975 has not even passed, and the terrible fascist misrule of the past 15 years has proven it again.’
He further said that no joint or complete history book has been published on the terrible misrule of the past 15 years. He requested journalists and researchers to work quickly on this issue and the Information Minister to supervise it.
Stating that an environment is being created to protect the freedom of the media during the current government, the Local Government Minister said that despite the government’s efforts, on the other hand, the owners of some corporate media houses are unjustly torturing journalists.
Citing the president of the National Press Club, poet Hasan Hafiz, he said, “Yesterday, our Press Club president was asked to resign from the post of editor. This is not in line with any civilization, I strongly condemn this injustice and urge the journalist community to speak out against it.”
Highlighting the party’s perspective, Mirza Fakhrul said, BNP is not a revolutionary party, it is a liberal democratic party. BNP always practices a policy of tolerating dissent. As a result, it is the safest political party in the country, where journalists and other professionals can always be completely safe. Whenever BNP has been in power in the past, the persecution of journalists in the country has been the least.
He said, today we must ensure that the black chapter that was written on June 16, 1975, when newspapers were closed, never returns to our national life.
Among others, the discussion meeting was addressed by National Press Club President Poet Hasan Hafiz, Convener of Television Editors Council and Editor-in-Chief of Bangla Vision Dr. Abdul Hai Siddique, Editor of Pratidin Bangladesh Patrika and prominent journalist Maruf Kamal Khan Sohel.
In addition, BFUJ Vice President Khairul Bashar, AKM Mohsin, Assistant Secretary General Dr. Sadiqul Islam, Publicity Secretary Shahjahan Saju, Organizing Secretary Erfanul Haque Nahid, and leaders of various journalist organizations in the country.
Source : BSS
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