'DCs' proposal unrealistic'

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Information has rejected the proposal of deputy commissioners to give them authority to cancel registration of media outlets for publishing seditious and blasphemous news.

The committee has termed the proposal “unrealistic.”

The committee discussed the matter at length at a meeting in Parliament on Tuesday. Committee member Mrinal Kanti Das raised the issue for discussion in the meeting.

Information minister Hasanul Haq Inu, Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Sukumer Ranjan Ghosh, Simin Hossain Rimi, Das, Saimum Sarwar Kamal and Tarana Halim were present in the meeting presided by AKM Rahmatullah.

Das told bdnews24.com, “After the idea caused consternation in the media, the committee wanted to know about it from the information ministry. The ministry informed it that no such decision was taken by the government.

"The committee is of the view that such proposal is unrealistic and has no basis.”

According to news reports, DCs wanted to revive a scrapped clause of the Printing Presses and Publications Act, 1973 to delegate the power to the district magistrate.

The clause itself was a controversial one, which was frequently misused to shut down media outlets during the period from 1974 to 1990.

Media activists had voiced their concern over the clause but no ruling regimes paid any heed to their demand.

Their long struggle, however, bore fruition in 1991 when Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed-led Caretaker Government cancelled the clause.

Committee president AKM Rahmatullah told bdnews24.com, “After the discussion, committee members decided not to provide any power to DCs to cancel the registration of media outlets.”

Meanwhile, the parliamentary secretariat in a media statement stated that recommendation of increasing the salaries of Radio Bangladesh artists were also discussed in the meeting.

It was suggested to list them into two wage categories instead of current four wage categories.