“Media professionals must refrain from negative reporting at the time of such crises, and uphold professionalism in performing their duties and responsibilities,” Md Shahriar Alam said as he opened the ‘Asia Media Conference-2016’ in Dhaka Friday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) are jointly organising the conference bringing together senior editors of the Asia region with the theme ‘Reporting Humanitarian Emergencies and Crisis’.
The state minister said when populations are struggling with humanitarian crisis, media can play “key role” through providing information.
“Providing information and communication timely can save lives and reduce suffering. It can help the humanitarian organisations mobilise assistance to disaster-affected people,” he said, urging both aid agencies and media to understand each other’s work.
“The relationship (between aid organisations and media) is sometimes characterised by mistrust, miscommunication and misunderstanding,” he said.
“To improve the situation, media professionals and humanitarian workers should understand each other’s work and establish appropriate channels through which they can communicate,” he said.
Chairman of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society Hafiz Ahmed Majumder, Head of Delegation of ICRC Ikhtiyar Aslanov, Regional Public Relation Adviser of ICRC Graziella Piccoli and DCAB President Angur Nahar Monty spoke at the inaugural session.
The daylong event features two panel discussions with one "the challenges to responsible and humanitarian journalism" chaired by journalist Brian John Thomson.
bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi will chair the panel on the “Threats and Opportunities in the Age of New media and Innovation”.