Dhaka, Sept 6 (bdnews24.com) – The government Thursday halted transmission of the country's first 24-hour news channel, CSB News, on charges of forging a no-objection certificate, and asked its authorities to respond to an official notice in seven days.
The order was implemented at 6:35pm after four officials of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission visited the private station's headquarters in Uttara with the notice for suspension.
In a late-night statement, the Press Information Department said the suspension order came as CSB was found to have used a "fake" no-objection certificate to "fraudulently" obtain permission for radio frequency from BTRC.
"The information ministry has cancelled its no-objection certificate for Focus Multimedia Company Limited for broadcasting news or other programmes," the statement said.
The order that many of the channel's journalists and employees described as "a surprise" move made most of them cry.
The initial halt would remain effective for seven days, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, director of Focus Multimedia Limited that owns the station, had told bdnews24.com earlier.
"BTRC officials told us to respond to the notice in seven days. CSB will remain off the air—initially for seven days," he said.
He quoted a BTRC official as saying that it would be decided, based on an explanation from CSB, if the station would be switched off permanently.
Kazi Runa, a reporter for the private TV station, earlier told bdnews24.com by phone: "BTRC officials came to our office and shut transmission."
The station went on the no-or-bad signal mode immediately after its transmission was cut off.
Niaz Morshed Quaderi, head of the editorial section, read out a statement on behalf of the channel authorities.
"We had requested the BTRC officials to give us some time to announce that we are going to stop our transmission. But they did not agree," an emotional Morshed told bdnews24.com.
The channel started broadcasting on March 26 and earned popularity in covering big news events such as the arrests of two former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.
Tushar Abdullah, CSB's head of News Input for the station, said he hoped they would get the right back to start the transmission of the channel after the seven-day deadline.
"It's quite unfortunate not only for us but for the entire media community that a popular station like ours had to be shut down without any notice," he said.
Provash Amin, head of News Output for the channel, said they would keep their office open and continue their normal activities despite the shutdown.
Babu, an employee of CSB, broke down on the staircase on the 12th floor. "What would happen to us? What is our fault?" he cried out.
Mazharul Islam, a senior crime reporter of the channel, tried to console Babu but he too was visibly moved by the decision.
Last month, the government had warned the CSB News for "breaching emergency rules".
"Several news items broadcast by the two TV channels breached the emergency rules. The government will take action if they continue to do so," law adviser Mainul Hosein told bdnews24.com on Aug 23.
Another private TV station, ETV, faced the same warning from the government.
In a statement last month, the Press Information Department quoting an official order said the two TV stations had run "provocative news, video footage and talk shows against the government" for the last few days.
But neither the PID statement nor the adviser in the phone interview explained which news item of the TV channels had exactly breached the emergency rules.
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