Editors Guild, Bangladesh forms fully fledged executive committee

Editors Guild, Bangladesh, which came into being in an effort to protect editorial freedom and promote responsible journalism, has formed its fully fledged executive committee.

bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi is president of the nine-strong executive committee.

The members include senior journalist Abed Khan, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha Chief Editor Abul Kalam Azad, The Daily Amader Notun Shomoy Editor Nayeemul Islam Khan, and The Daily Janakantha Executive Editor Swadesh Roy.

The others are Ekattor Television Editor-in-Chief Mozammel Babu, DBC Television Editor-in-Chief Manzurul Islam, Gazi Television and sarabangla.net Editor-in-Chief Syed Ishtiaque Reza, and Desh Television Editor Sukanta Gupta Alak.

The members of the Guild unanimously passed the new committee in a meeting at the bdnews24.com offices in Dhaka on Friday.

The 13-strong convening committee, which was extended from the first committee of nine, was dissolved while the executive committee was formed.

The association of editorial leaders from across the news publishing industry in Bangladesh started its journey on Dec 21 last year.

“One of our key tasks would be to formulate a code of ethics for news professionals, which does not exist here at the moment,” Toufque Khalidi said about the organisation on that day.

To formulate the code of ethics, bring in new members and manage funds and operations, the Editors Guild formed three other committees in Friday’s meeting.

Swadesh Roy has Ishtiaque Reza and ATN News Chief Executive Editor Munni Saha in the membership committee.

Mozammel Babu is heading the operations committee. Its members are Manzurul Islam, Ishtiaque Reza, ATN Bangla Chief Executive Editor ZI Mamun, Asian Age Editorial Board Chairman Shoeb Chowdhury, Bangla Tribune Editor Zulfiqer Russell, and The Daily Amader Orthoneeti Editor Nasima Khan Monty.

Headed by Khalidi, the ethics committee has Abed Khan and Swadesh Roy as its members. It is tasked with drafting the association’s constitution. 

The logo of Editors Guild, Bangladesh

The association also unveiled its logo in the meeting.

“If you look at the symbolism that our logo portrays, you will probably see we have given utmost importance to accuracy,” said Khalidi. “Our credibility as news publishers and news providers depends almost entirely on accuracy of information we serve our audience.”

“Credibility has always been in short supply in our journalism.”

Abed Khan said, “We have not been able to value ethics in journalism for a long time. Journalists have become employees, editors have turned into CEOs.”       

“What we call ‘editorial institution’ has broken down. There cannot be any failure in reviving this institution. We’ve seen that the corporate sector is grabbing this slowly,” he said.

He hoped the Guild would give a strong base to the editors’ ethical position.   

Journalist Reazul Bashar will work as the executive secretary to all the committees of the Guild.