Officials of info ministry change draft

The draft of the Broadcast Act-2016 could not be finalised yesterday, as officials of the information ministry added a new section to the draft, saying the issuance of broadcast licence will require the government approval.

The section was not in the original draft that suggested giving the authority to issue the licence to the proposed Broadcasting Commission.

A meeting between the ministry and different stakeholders was held at the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) to discuss stakeholders' opinions on the draft after it was put on the ministry's website on April 20.

The draft was supposed to be finalised yesterday for sending it to the cabinet for approval.

Prof AJM Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, chairman of Dhaka University's Television and Film Studies department and a member of the committee preparing the draft act, raised the issue of changing the original draft.

He alleged that the ministry officials made the change without informing the committee.

The draft was prepared by the ministry officials. It was then verified with the original one only to learn that the crucial change was made.

Many stakeholders at the meeting said the proposed Broadcasting Commission would not be independent if the licence issuance authority is in the government's hands.

They suggested giving the authority to the commission.

"The prime minister herself said the commission will be independent, but some ministry officials do not want that," a member of the committee told The Daily Star.

Another member said, “We didn't prepare the draft the ministry produced in the meeting for discussion.”

The meeting decided that information minister, information secretary and PM's Media Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury would sit soon to resolve the problem.

Manzurul Ahsan Bulbul, chief executive officer of Ekushey Television, sought to know how the commission would be independent if it issued licence on government's approval.

Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Daily Samakal Editor Golam Sarwar echoed Bulbul's views.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said the act was being formulated to institutionalise the media.

He said they would discuss the recommendations and proposals that they got from various discussions and also on the website.