High Court raps officials over inaction on code of conduct for journalists

The High Court has asked the authorities why their inaction to make a proper code of conduct for newspapers, news agencies and journalists in accordance with high professional standards following the Bangladesh Press Council Act of 1974 shall not be declared beyond their legal power.

In a set of rules on Monday, the court asked why it will not order the authorities to make a code of conduct and ethics for the journalists and form a broadcasting commission in line with the National Broadcast Policy of 2014.

After hearing a writ petition, the bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah also asked why they will not order steps to bar unauthorised online news portals from publishing reports and to register the portals that have applied for the authorisation.

The information secretary, the chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Board and the chairman of Bangladesh Press Council have been given a week to respond, said Rashida Chowdhury Nilu, one of the lawyers for the petitioner.

Many online news portals published defamatory reports on the death of college student Mosarat Jahan Muniya in April, said Rashida. “The law specifies that a commission must be there to monitor such news, but unfortunately it has not been formed yet. So, these portals are not facing action.”

“And there is no supervision of the registration of news portals that have applied for registration. This is why the writ petition has been filed.”      

The lawyer said she would file a supplementary writ petition seeking an interim ban on the unauthorised news portals.