Media for Bangladeshi diaspora growing in Toronto

When the traditional print media is facing stiff challenges for survival, a new weekly newspaper is going to publication in Toronto to cater the information need of the Bangladeshi diaspora in Canada.

The CBN or Canadian Bangladeshi News would launch its print edition next month after successful online publication since January this year.

Editor-in-Chief of CBN Mahbubul Haque Osmani made the announcement at a ceremony organised to inaugurate the office at Danforth, known as Bangali Parha in Toronto. Poet Asad Chowdhury was chief guest at the ceremony.

CBN will pit itself against four other regular publications for readership and advertisement. There are three others online publications targeting the same audience.

In addition to the four weeklies, two monthlies, three online newspapers, three TV stations- two from Toronto and one from Montreal, are also serving the Bangladeshi community.

"These are in regular circulation or transmission, but there are many other irregular publications for the community," Osmani told bdnews24.com.

Another TV station, Nandan TV, is at its final stages and plans to go on air soon, he added.

According to Bangladesh high commission statistics, some 100,000 expatriate Bangladeshis are living in Canada and around 80 percent of them are living in the province of Ontario.

Over 100 languages are spoken in Toronto, the capital of Ontario, which is considered to be the most multicultural among the Canadian cities.

At the inauguration ceremony, poet Asad Chowdhury said the Bangladeshi diaspora in Canada was a hard-working group so they succeed in many ways.

The new publication would provide them with authentic information that would help make an informed Bangladeshi diaspora, he added.