The parliamentary standing committee on information ministry expressed dissatisfaction at a report submitted by the Department of Films and Publications (DFP) that presented circulation statistics of the dailies and volume of advertisements allocated for them.

The DFP says in its report that 388 daily newspapers are being published and getting government advertisements from the DFP. Of them, 164 are published from Dhaka and the rest from elsewhere, sources said quoting the report.

In 2003-04 fiscal year, DFP allocated Tk 21.4 crore advertisements to the Dhaka-based dailies and Tk4.3 crore to 224 dailies published from outside the capital.

According to the circulation figures mentioned in the report, The Bangladesh Observer publishes 35,040 copies, The Daily Star 28,115, New Age 19,100, Prothom Alo 223,465, Inqilab 150,000, Dinkal 60,000 and Khabarpatra 39,810 copies.

The members of the parliamentary body reviewing the report observed the circulation figures and number of newspapers are not authentic and most of them are fake ones. Even Information Minister M Shamsul Islam echoed the members' views.

The minister said once he looked for newspapers, which were not mainstream dailies, at a stall but could not find them. Coincidentally, a journalist of such a newspaper was present there at that time and he told him that all the copies of his newspaper had been sold in the morning.

"It's not a gossip. It's fact," said the minister as the members present at the meeting started laughing after he finished the story. The minister then asked the members to examine the matter.

The committee decided to visit the DFP and examine its documents on newspapers. It also asked the DFP to prepare a report whether the existing policy of advertisement distribution should be amended.

The DFP report shows at least a hundred dailies have circulation between 6,000 and 7,000, the minimum circulation stipulated for newspapers to be listed with the DFP and get government ads.

The report contains information about the circulation and advertisements allocated against 24 dailies but information about other newspapers was not shown in details. The committee members suggested furnishing the information.

"We see no transparency in the distribution of government advertisements among the newspapers," said a member at the meeting.

"Most of the members are not satisfied with the report and we did not accept the report," Committee Chairman Ebadur Rahman Chowdhury told The Daily Star last night after the meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.