Meeting with Noab: Muhith for more discussion on wage board

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said there would be further discussions on wage board for journalists.

He argued that the salaries and allowances given in five categories in the newspaper industry were higher than that of government employees. So, nothing to be done afresh, he said.

Muhith made the comments while replying to reporters' queries following a meeting with a delegation from Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab) at the secretariat.

The Noab team was led by its President Matiur Rahman, editor of Prothom Alo. The other members included Noab Vice-president AK Azad, publisher of Samakal, and Executive Member Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star. Nojibur Rahman, chairman of National Board of Revenue, and Martuza Ahmed, information secretary, were also present.

Meanwhile, sources at the finance ministry said Muhith would meet leaders of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on August 17 to discuss about the newspaper industry.

Yesterday, the minister also told reporters, ”Information on the newspaper industry is being gathered and the information being received is very sad. So many newspapers don't exist in reality. Even after that, they are running. It's because [they] get paper in low price. They get this and that.” 

After the meeting, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said, “Several problems faced by the newspaper industry were discussed. However, no decision was taken.”

The finance minister said except 15 to 20 newspapers, all the other dailies published from Dhaka were “bogus”. He asked how many professionals, apart from government employees, have their salaries and allowances fixed. 

Asked about wage board from television journalists, Muhith said, “The same situation. Those who can't do that would leave. Is anywhere else are there so many TV channels?”