Dhaka South Mayor Sayeed Khokon faces citizen journalists

Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sayeed Khokon took questions from citizen journalists during the sixth anniversary celebration of citizen journalism blog ‘blog.bdnews24.com’.

The day-long programme began at Daffodil International University in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi around 11am on Thursday.

The schedule this time is different than other years. At the centre of the event was a discussion titled Citizen Journalists Correspond with the Mayor.

A documentary short titled ‘The Rise of Citizen Journalism’, charting the progress of the platform and the media landscape, was shown at the start of the programme.

Blog Editor Ireen Sultana told the story of the platform’s journey since its launch on Feb 11, 2011 at the Ekushey Book Fair. 

Alongside their writing, Sultana also highlighted the involvement of citizen journalists in activism and humanitarian aid work.

Chief Information Commissioner Prof Golam Rahman unveiled the new blog.bdnews24.com logo during the ceremony.

Dhaka South City Mayor Sayeed Khokon presented the annual citizen journalism to Narayanganj resident Nitai Babu for his writing.

The mayor was on hand for the unveiling of 'Navigating the City – Correspondence with the Mayor', a collection of 25 writings by citizen journalists on the expectations of City Corporation and municipal residents published by blog.bdnews24.com.

The mayor also took questions from citizen journalists during a Q&A session.

Journalism and Mass Communication students of the Daffodil International University helped citizen journalists to organize this year’s programme.

Daffodil International University Chairman Shobur Khan was also present at the event.

A ‘birthday cake’ was cut at the end of the day’s first session.

The second session featured a workshop for citizen journalism. Twenty Daffodil students are to participate.

Dhaka University Journalism and Mass Communication Department Associate Professor Robayet Ferdous and Fahmidul Haque will conducted the two sessions of the workshop.

Though a few thousand writers are registered on the blog, only a few hundred citizen journalists write regularly, said Editor Ireen Sultana.

blog.bdnews24.com arranged for five citizen journalists based outside Dhaka to attend the celebration this year.

The six-year anniversary programme was live-streamed on bdnews24.com and Facebook.