Media
Bangladesh media delegation on tour of Indian capital
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has welcomed a Bangladesh media delegation to New Delhi.
Arindam Bagchi, joint secretary and spokesperson at the ministry, hosted a dinner in honour of the visiting delegation at Taj Mahal Hotel in the city Friday.
Bagchi hoped that the familiarisation visit would help the delegation members know more about the variety and diversity of India.
Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Muhammad Imran, Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner to New Delhi Md Nural Islam, officials of the MEA, BSS New Delhi Bureau Chief Aminul Islam Mirja, and senior journalists from India were present.
Media in Bangladesh enjoys total freedom: Info mins
Newspapers and electronic media in Bangladesh are enjoying unbridled freedom during the present government, Information and Broadcast Minister Hassan Mahmud told the Parliament said on Tuesday.
Replying to a tabled question by Jatiya Party MP from Dhaka Syed Abu Hossain, the minister also said that free flow of information has been ensured to help accelerate national development.
He said the government has formulated national media policy 2014, enacted Right to Information Act 2009 and established Information Commission and formulated online media policy 2017 to help journalists pursue objective journalism.
He mentioned that due to the liberal broadcasting policy of the media-friendly government there are 46 televisions, 22 FM radios and 33 community radio channels in the private sector.
READ: No festival planned for Padma Bridge opening: Info Minister
The minister said 108 online news portals have been given registration certificates.
In addition, registration certificates have been issued to online portals of 108 daily newspapers, while work is underway to give permission to 48 more.
Responding to a question from ruling party MP from Dhaka Habib Hasan, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said the government has no plan to provide new gas connections to residential areas.
Responding to a question from ruling party MP from Chattogram M Abdul Latif, the state minister said the country's demand for natural gas is currently around 3,700 million cubic feet per day.
In the FY2021–2022, the daily production from domestic gas fields has been 2,432 million cubic feet and the capacity to import LNG is equivalent to one thousand million cubic feet per day.
Of this, a target of importing 625 million cubic feet of LNG per day was set FY 2021-2022 ending on June 30.
Responding to a question from ruling party MP from Bhola Ali Azam, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun said during the outgoing financial year the country's fertilizer factories have produced 9,85,889 tonnes of fertilizer till June 16, 2022 against the annual target of 9.5 lakh tonnes.
He also said that urea fertilizer is imported from abroad.
No monkeypox case detected yet in Bangladesh: Health Ministry
No one has been infected with monkeypox virus in Bangladesh yet, said the Health Ministry on Tuesday.
A report on the detection of a monkeypox infected foreign national in Bangladesh which is circulating on social media, online and electronic media is not true, according to a media release of the ministry.
Also read: Suspected Monkeypox patient sent to hospital from Dhaka airport
No monkeypox case has been detected yet in the country and if any case is found in future, people will be informed through press release, it said.
Earlier in the day, a Turkish citizen, who showed suspected symptoms of monkeypox, was sent to hospital after arrival at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, authorities said.
The man was first taken to the Airport Health Centre and then sent to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mohakhali, said Dr Shahrier Sazzad, in-charge of Airport Health Centre.
The traveler arrived by a flight of Turkish Airlines at noon. The airport health authorities detected symptoms of monkeypox in him during screening, said Dr Shahrier.
On May 22, the government instructed the authorities concerned to strengthen surveillance at land, air and sea ports for screening travelers coming to Bangladesh from countries with confirmed monekypox cases.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) issued a notice in this regard.
According to the notice, monkeypox is not a new disease. It was found among people in West and Middle African countries in the past. Recently it has been detected among people living in European and American countries with no history of travelling in the African countries.
Also read: Monkeypox: Govt orders screening passengers at all airports, land ports
People who contracted the virus or came close to the infected people should be listed as suspected patients of monkeypox, it said.
The suspected patients or patients having symptoms should be taken to government hospitals or Infectious Diseases Hospital and kept in isolation and it should be reported to the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR).
Parliamentary committee gets 2 more months to review media employees bill
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Broadcast on Monday got another 60 days to examine the much-talked-about Mass Media Employees (Services Conditions) Bill 2022.
Chairman of the Committee Hasanul Huq Inu sought the time in Parliament and the House approved.
On March 28 of this year, Information and Broadcast Minister Hasan Mahmud placed the Bill and it was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on the respective ministry for scrutiny of the proposed law.
According to the source, the Standing Committee did not sit for a meeting till now.
Various journalists organisations and owners associations have opposed many sections of the proposed law.
The wages and benefits of journalists, employees and press workers, artists of broadcast, online, and print media outlets would be fixed under the proposed law.
As per the Bill, journalists will be regarded as media professionals, not as workers.
The wage board will be applicable for journalists and employees of all the media outlets, including print and electronic, as per the Bill.
According to the Bill, the minimum working hours for media employees will be 48 hours in a week, while the casual leave will be 15 days instead of 10 days and the earned leave will be 100 days instead of 60 days annually.
If anybody works beyond the stipulated time, he or she will be entitled to overtime pay.
Besides, the festival leave will be 10 days in a year, recreation leave will be 15 days after every three years, and the maternity leave will be six months in place of the existing eight weeks.
READ: Parliamentary committee wants expert officials as project heads
If anyone or organisation violates the provisions of the Bill, s/he will be fined Tk 50,000-Tk 5 lakh.
The government will be able to cancel the license or registration of the media. The owners of media outlets will also face punishment for violation of the law.
If anyone or any organisation violates the provisions of the Bill, he/she will face monetary fine or imprisonment, the Cabinet secretary said.
Once the new law is passed in parliament, jobs of media employees will no longer be regulated under the labour law.
Currently, journalists and employees of media houses are regarded as “workers” under the labour law.
Once the law is passed, they will be regarded as media personnel, not workers.
According to the proposed law, a wage board will be formed for the media personnel.
The wage board will fix salaries and allowances of media personnel in line with the salary scale of the government employees and it will be applicable to the owners of all media outlets.
Every media house will have a provident fund which will be applicable to a new employee after one year in service instead of two years. An employee will contribute 8 to 10 percent of his basic salary, currently 7 percent, and an equal amount will be deposited in the fund by the owner of the media house, the proposed law states.
Media fraternity pays last tributes to KG Mustofa
Journalists paid their last tributes to their fellow colleague and renowned lyricist KG Mustofa at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital on Monday.
Over a hundred media workers, former colleagues and friends of KG Mustofa gathered on the JPC premises to show their last respect to him as his mortal remains were brought there around 1:30pm.
Apart from journalists, people from different professions also paid homage to the veteran journalist by placing wreaths on his coffin.
Also read: Eminent lyricist, journalist KG Mostafa passes away
Wreaths were also placed on his coffin, on behalf of different organisations, including JPC, BFUJ, DUJ, PIB and Noakhali Journalist Forum.
Earlier, his namaz-e-Janaza was held on the JPC premises.
JPC senior vice president Hasan Hafiz, general secretary Ilias Khan, joint secretaries Mainul Alam and Ashraf Ali, treasurer Shahed Chowdhury, senior journalist Ershad Majumder, Mohiuddin Alamgir, Mostafa Kamal Majumder, Zakaria Kajal, Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, Omar Faruque, M Abdullah, Nurul Amin Rokon, Khairuzzaman Kamal and Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury took part in the janaza.
KG Mustofa (84), the legendary lyricist of numerous evergreen songs from the golden era of Bengali cinema, passed away at his home in Azimpur at 8 pm on Sunday at the age of 84.
Born on July 1st, 1936, in Begumganj of Noakhali district, KG KG Mustofa is known for writing many popular songs, including “Tomare Legeche Eto Je Bhalo, Chaand Bujhi Ta Jaane” from the movie 'Rajdhanir Buke' (1960) starring Rahman-Shabnam. This iconic track was composed by Pakistani-Bangladeshi playback singer and film music composer Robin Ghosh and sung by famous Indian singer Talat Mahmood.
Another of his popular songs is “Aayna Te Oi Mukh Dekhbe Jokhon,” composed by Robin Ghosh and sung by eminent Bangladeshi playback singer Mahmudun Nabi. This song was used in the movie 'Nacher Putul' (1971) starring the popular on-screen duo Razzak and Shabnam.
In his esteemed career, KG KG Mustofa worked as a prominent journalist, columnist and poet. He was the editor of ‘Shachitra Bangladesh’ magazine.
Mass Media Employees Bill aimed at gagging media: Fakhrul
BNP on Sunday demanded the withdrawal of the Mass Media Employees (Services Conditions) Bill 2022 placed in parliament last month as the party thinks it will help the government gag the media and regulate its critics.
"A new law, the Mass Media Employees Bill 2022, is being enacted. The purpose of this law is to ensure no freedom of speech, no freedom of press and no democracy in the country,” said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Speaking at an iftar party, he also said the objective of the law is also to establish the government’s full control on it critics and on those who raise voice in favour of truth, democracy and people.
Also read: Turkish envoy meets Fakhrul, talks about next polls
If this law is passed, the BNP leader said the ‘state of control', that has been currently prevailing in the country will be reinforced. “We demand the withdrawal of this draft law.”
Pro-BNP faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) arranged the iftar party on the Jatiya Press Club premises.
On March 28 last, Information and Broadcast Minister Hasan Mahmud placed the Mass Media Employees (Services Conditions) Bill 2022 in Parliament.
Fakhrul called upon the journalists to get united putting aside minor differences and divisions among them and carry out a united struggle to protect their own and the media interests and to protect the rights of the people of Bangladesh and the freedom of press.
He alleged there is now no democracy in the country, freedom of speech, rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
Also read: Info Minister calls Mirza Fakhrul 'a great liar'
“We have to wage a movement to restore all these things...let us all create public opinions to establish a truly people's government in the country through (holding a credible election under )a neutral government by ousting the current fascist regime.”
Ex-Facebook manager alleges social network fed Capitol riot
A data scientist who was revealed Sunday as the Facebook whistleblower says that whenever there was a conflict between the public good and what benefited the company, the social media giant would choose its own interests.
Frances Haugen was identified in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday as the woman who anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement that the company's own research shows how it magnifies hate and misinformation.
Haugen, who worked at Google and Pinterest before joining Facebook in 2019, said she had asked to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, since she lost a friend to online conspiracy theories.
“Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety,” she said. Haugen, who will testify before Congress this week, said she hopes that by coming forward the government will put regulations in place to govern the company's activities.
Read: Facebook sorry for ‘primates’ label on video of Black men
She said Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and rabble rousing after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump last year, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
Post-election, the company dissolved a unit on civic integrity where she had been working, which Haugen said was the moment she realized “I don't trust that they're willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous.”
At issue are algorithms that govern what shows up on users' news feeds, and how they favor hateful content. Haugen said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together.
Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back — a pattern that helped the Menlo Park, California, social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate most of its advertising.
Facebook’s annual revenue has more than doubled from $56 billion in 2018 to a projected $119 billion this year, based on the estimates of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Meanwhile, the company’s market value has soared from $375 billion at the end of 2018 to nearly $1 trillion now.
Even before the full interview came out on Sunday, a top Facebook executive was deriding the whistleblower’s allegations as “misleading.”
“Social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out,” Nick Clegg, the company’s vice president of policy and public affairs wrote to Facebook employees in a memo sent Friday. “But what evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization.”
Read: Rights group: Facebook amplified Myanmar military propaganda
The “60 Minutes” interview intensifies the spotlight already glaring on Facebook as lawmakers and regulators around the world scrutinize the social networking’s immense power to shape opinions and its polarizing effects on society.
The backlash has been intensifying since The Wall Street Journal’s mid-September publication of an expose that revealed Facebook’s internal research had concluded the social network’s attention-seeking algorithms had helped foster political dissent and contributed to mental health and emotional problems among teens, especially girls. After copying thousands of pages of Facebook's internal research, Haugen leaked them to the Journal to provide the foundation for a succession of stories packaged as as the “Facebook Files.”
Although Facebook asserted the Journal had cherry picked the most damaging information in the internal documents to cast the company in the worst possible light, the revelations prompted an indefinite delay in the rollout of a kids’ version of its popular photo- and video-sharing app, Instagram. Facebook currently requires people to be at least 13 years old to open an Instagram account.
Clegg appeared on CNN's “Reliable Sources” Sunday in another pre-emptive attempt to soften the blow of Haugen's interview.
“Even with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform,” Clegg told CNN, “we’re never going to be absolutely on top of this 100% of the time."
He said that's because of the “instantaneous and spontaneous form of communication" on Facebook, adding, “I think we do more than any reasonable person can expect to.”
Read:Australian court rules media liable for Facebook comments
By choosing to reveal herself on “60 Minutes,” Haugen selected television’s most popular news program, on an evening its viewership is likely to be inflated because, in many parts of the country, it directly followed an NFL matchup between Green Bay and Pittsburgh.
Haugen, 37, is from Iowa and has a degree in computer engineering and a Master's degree in business from Harvard University — the same school that Facebook founder and leader Mark Zuckerberg attended.
Haugen, 37, has filed at least eight complaints with U.S. securities regulators alleging Facebook has violated the law by withholding information about the risks posed by its social network, according to “60 Minutes.” Facebook in turn could take legal action against her if it asserts she stole confidential information from the company.
“No one at Facebook is malevolent," Haugen said during the interview. “But the incentives are misaligned, right? Like, Facebook makes more money when you consume more content. people enjoy engaging with things that elicit an emotional reaction. And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact and the more they consume."
Trump asks US judge to force Twitter to restore his account
Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in Florida to force Twitter to restore his account, which the company suspended in January following the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s attorneys on Friday filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Miami seeking a preliminary injunction against Twitter and its CEO, Jack Dorsey. They argue that Twitter is censoring Trump in violation of his First Amendment rights, according to the motion.
Read:Trump aides aim to build GOP opposition to Afghan refugees
Twitter declined to comment Saturday on Trump’s filing.
The company permanently banned Trump from its platform days after his followers violently stormed the Capitol building to try to block Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential win. Twitter cited concerns that Trump would incite further violence. Prior to the ban, Trump had roughly 89 million followers on Twitter.
Trump was also suspended from Facebook and Google’s YouTube over similar concerns that he would provoke violence. Facebook’s ban will last two years, until Jan. 7, 2023, after which the company will review his suspension. YouTube’s ban is indefinite.
Read: Biden backs Trump rejection of China’s South China Sea claim
In July, Trump filed lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against all three tech companies and their CEOs, claiming that he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored. The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed as part of Trump’s case against Twitter.
World needs journalists more than ever: Mia Seppo
UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Mia Seppo on Sunday said the world needs journalists more than ever to bring out truth while effectively dealing with the life-threatening misinformation.
“It’s ironic that in a moment with most access to information there’s an avalanche of life-threatening misinformation out there,” she said.
The UN official said the journalists have the responsibility to bring out truth, spread science-based facts that save lives, protect people and ensure rights. “That’s the power of your pen. Use that power as a force for good.”
The UN Resident Coordinator was addressing the “DCAB Talk” organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at the Foreign Service Academy.
Also read: UN to provide electoral assistance to Bangladesh if requested: Mia Seppo
DCAB President Pantho Rahaman and its General Secretary AKM Moinuddin also spoke at the “DCAB Talk” where UNRC Mia shared UN views on Rohingya and Afghanistan crises, issues related to Bhasan Char, climate change, sustainable and inclusive Covid recovery, Digital Security Act (DSA), gender issues and cooperation framework.
Mia said reports from journalists can help educate and clarify perceptions; as well as reconcile people and inspire patriotism.
FM gifts masks to journalists at media briefing
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Thursday gifted masks to journalists who attended a media briefing noting that safety comes first during COVID-19 situation.
The Foreign Minister handed over the masks to President of Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) Pantho Rahaman and its General Secretary AKM Moinuddin.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, among others, were present.
Also read: FM's book 'The Foreign Policy of the Twenty-First Century: Development and Leadership' published
Earlier, the Foreign Minister briefed the media on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's official visit to the US to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Prime Minister will leave here on Friday to begin her two-week visit to New York and Washington DC with a stopover in Finland.