Bangladesh media have raised concerns over Information Minister Abdul Kalam Azad’s announcement that the government plans to introduce new law to target “yellow journalism”.
Azad is reported to have said “newspapers and television and radio channels that are making false and misleading news to tarnish the image of ministers, lawmakers, the government and the country are in fact doing yellow journalism”.
In an editorial post on Dhaka’s Daily Star website, the author writes that the proposals, such as editors having to hold 15 years experience in journalism, will be “no guarantee that bad journalism will not be there.”
We are convinced that a new law for newspapers is a bad idea. It is fraught with danger and it threatens to put unfettered press freedom in jeopardy. We ask the government to jettison the entire idea in the larger interest of press freedom and by extension intellectual freedom in Bangladesh. We suggest that it utilize the existing mechanisms to ensure objective journalism in the country, especially the Press Council.