‘Free, independent, responsible media important for pluralistic society’
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Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said the role of free, independent and responsible media is very important in taking a state forward and reconstructing a pluralistic society.
“I do believe that free, independent and responsible media is very important to take a state forward and reconstruct a pluralistic society,” he said on Sunday while delivering a brief virtual speech from his secretariat office here on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, reports BSS.
Greeting journalists and media workers marking the day, Hasan said the country’s journalists and others involved in media have been working amid the coronavirus pandemic putting them at risk.
He said journalist Humayun Kabir Khokan died of COVID-19 as he was performing his duty amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
“I pray for the eternal peace of his departed soul. I also pray to the Almighty Allah for early recovery of those infected with coronavirus,” he added.
Hasan, also the Awami League joint general secretary said, said the AL government believes in free press and freedom of media.
“That’s why when Sheikh Hasina become the prime minister for the third time in 2009, media rapidly flourished in Bangladesh,” he added.
There were only 445 dailies in 2009 and now their number stands at 1,294 in the country in 2020, the information minister said, adding that there were 208 weekly newspapers in 2009 and the number increased to 1,208 in 2020.
About the flourish of broadcast media, he said there were only two state-run television channels in the country in 2009 but the number increased to four.
“The country had only 10 private TV channels in 2009 but now approval has been given to 45 private TV channels. There were only four FM radios in 2009, but we have given approval to 24 FM radios and most of those are in operation,” he said.
Hasan also said there was no community radio here in 2009, but the AL government has so far given approval to 32 community radios.
He said the statistics proved that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government believe in the freedom of media.