State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat has said that Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will be called to stop all unregistered online news portals in the country.
The Minister of State for Information said, ‘We are working very intensively with the poison of unregistered online newspapers. Several grotesque online portals have gone through various gazettes like the umbrella of the frog. They practice journalism, non-journalism. They create various problems in the society by spreading propaganda.’
He said, ‘The funny thing is that those who do journalism professionally, they demanded the closure of such portals and online newspapers. Journalist friends say that those who practice such unjournalism, they are actually causing harm to professional journalists.’
He further said, ‘The demand is only from the members of parliament, politicians or people of other sections of the society, the journalist community itself. There is a demand from them that the unregistered portal should be closed. I have given a directive a few days ago.’
The Minister of State for Information said, ‘I will send the full list to BTRC, which is established media, electronic media, print media, their registered portals and the portals that have applied, are under the process. I will request BTRC to stop all the online portals that have not applied for, but also for those who have not applied for a single application.’
