424 newspapers being published in country

The number of daily newspapers and fortnightly magazines in the country, which received 'no objection certificates' and declaration up to May 31 this year, stands at 592 and 76 respectively.
Of them, 424 dailies and 39 magazines are being published and the remaining 168 dailies and 37 magazines were not published, Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad told the Jatiya Sangsad in reply to a question raised by treasury bench member Md Ekabbar Hossain yesterday.
Responding to another question from ruling party lawmaker Shamsul Haque Chowdhury, the minister said the government organisations can give advertisements directly to the district-based newspapers as per the advertisement and supplementary policy of the information ministry.
"As the government organisations give ads to the newspapers directly, it is not possible to fix the quantity of ads given by the information ministry and the Films and Publication Department," he said.
The minister also told AL member AKM Fazlul Haque that there is no government bar to publishing daily or weekly newspapers lawfully.