Registration of online news portals to begin next week, says information minister

The process for registration of online news portals is set to begin from next week, the information minister has said.

Hasan Mahmud made the announcement during a media briefing at the Secretariat in Dhaka on Monday.

“The registration process will take some time because of scrutiny. We will seek applications again for registration in the future,” the minister said. 

According to Hasan, the government has received as many as 3,597 applications for registration this year.

“The home ministry has held several meetings with telecommunications and ICT ministries to that end. They have been asked to look into the applications and report back to the home ministry immediately.”

Several hundred applications have already been scrutinised, the minister said, citing the home ministry.

“The home ministry will hand the reports to us within one or two more days.  We will start granting approvals to online news portals from next week,” he said.

 “The government will act against unauthorised news portals after the process is completed,” he added.

The information ministry launched the registration process in 2015 to curb ‘yellow journalism’.

 “We hope discipline will be restored in this sector once the registration process is completed.”