“Whether people want a change in favour of those who do politics of conspiracy that is the question” said Awami League Joint General Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud.
He was responding to a question from reporters after exchanging views with the newly elected leaders of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's meeting room on Wednesday afternoon.
BFUJ President Omar Farooq, Secretary General Deep Azad, Vice President Madhusudan Mandal, Joint General Secretary Sheikh Mamunur Rashid, Office Secretary Sebika Rani, Member Ummul Wara Sweety, Dr. Utpal Kumar Sarkar, Sheikh Nazmul Haque and Noor-e-Jannat Shima took part in the meeting.
In response to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul's statement “There will be coming a change in the next election”, Hasan Mahmud said, “Optimism is the only hope in the ocean, it applies to the BNP. BNP leaders are living with this hope. It is better to have hope, not everyone will be in power forever.”
“However, the question is whether people want that change in favour of BNP. The question is whether people want change for those who throw petrol bombs at the people or carry out the politics of hostage-taking, murder-conspiracy for their own political interests, excluding development”, he added.
When asked to comment on journalist Rozina Islam receiving an award from an international organization and being on trial for stealing government documents, the minister congratulating Rozina Islam said, “An organization in the Netherlands has awarded her and her husband has received the award from a Pakistani journalist. As the rest of the matter is undergoing investigation, it is not appropriate to say anything about it.”
Earlier, in a meeting with BFUJ leaders, Minister Hasan Mahmud said, “BFUJ is the largest organization of journalists in Bangladesh. The way they conducted a beautiful elections is an example of upholding democracy. Congratulations to BFUJ, the newly elected committee and everyone involved in the election.”
The Information Minister said, “In the last 13 years, along with the massive expansion of the media, the number of journalists has also increased and various problems have also arisen. I have always tried to solve the problems of the media as much as possible in my strength, ability and power. Journalists like ours have not been assisted in the subcontinent or in other countries during the Covid-19 pandemic situation.”
“The implementation of clean feed in the country has been talked about for many years, but it did not happen. Now that clean feed has been implemented, all television channels in the country are benefiting. At this time, any dismissal from television is not recommended at all. Corona's departure has alleviated much of the crisis in the media. We hope that those who lost their jobs during the corona period will be reinstated”, he added.
At this time, the media worker law is in the final stage and the broadcasting law is also being worked on, said Dr Hasan. Regarding the protection of journalists, he said that if every media organization arranges insurance for all media workers, they are protected. It is also mentioned on the weight board. I urge everyone to do it responsibly. It is not desirable that, a journalist will go empty-handed after working for so many years.