BANGLADESH

EU delegation meets Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hassan Mahnud

European Union (EU) delegation met Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at his office in Dhaka on Wednesday July 12.

Three members of the EU delegation, Riccardo Chelleri, Dimitra Ioannou and Cristina Dos Ramos Alves, met the Minister.

Dr Hasan Mahmud, after the meeting, while talking to the journalists, said, no discussion about politics was held during the meeting. EU delegation wanted to know about the role of the ministry in the country’s mass media.

He added that “We informed the EU delegation the mass media in Bangladesh is mainly private. Bangladesh Television and 35 private TV channels are on air. There are also 1,250 newspapers, hundreds of online news portals, FM and community radios and all are private except Bangladesh Betar.”

He mentioned that discussion was held about the responsibilities of social platforms from which rumours are spread and results violence.

He pointed out, “You all know that the European Union has amended the law at the beginning of the year that every social media platform must be registered in Europe.So the social platforms, including facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been asked for registration as per the law of Bangladesh. But it has not happened till now.Even, the minister said, when the social media are asked to remove a rumour or controversial post, they do delay and the rate of removal is 10 percent.”

The Minister said that the polls in Bangladesh will be held like European countries where the existing government acts as the poll-time government.  I informed them that the elections will be held in Bangladesh according to the constitution. There is no power of the government except routine work during the polls. All the organisations involved in the election process would have to work under the Election Commission.

He added that no discussion was held over the caretaker government. And no one has a headache over the caretaker government. It is the only headache of the BNP. The EU delegation came here to oversee the polls, not to bring the BNP to the polls.

The Minister further said, “I told the EU delegation that we want participation of all the political parties including BNP in the general election.”

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
Close