Speakers including development professionals, academics and journalists at an event on Sunday said that development journalism was not meant for producing ‘positive stories’ as part of any power quarters’ propaganda, but for holding them accountable to the people.
They said that the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina in her 15-year authoritarian regime brought to the fore development as an alternative to democracy and media outlets largely were engaged in positive reporting without asking questions whether those were implemented for the welfare of the people and maintaining environmental compliances.
International development organisation Oxfam in Bangladesh organised the event marking the launch of the Development Media Forum aimed at enhancing professional capacities and promoting collective efforts among media professionals.
Addressing the event as chief guest, Chief Adviser’s press secretary Shafiqul Alam said that even some green factories were constructed, encroaching rivers in the country.
Referring to the Roopur Nuclear Power Project being implemented at Ishwardi in Pabna with the technical and financial support of Russia, he said that risk factors of such a plant were never questioned or assessed earlier.
‘We never ask the question about the disaster the Rooppur Power Plant may cause to the tens of thousands of people,’ said Shafiqul, a journalist-turned-bureaucrat.Â
Ambassador of Sweden to Bangladesh Nicolas Linus Ragnas Weeks said that such a forum could function as a catalyst by providing resources, networking and training to journalists and help them hold the government accountable to the people.
He said that misinformation and disinformation were posing risks to the wellbeing of the people.
Director General at Press Institute Bangladesh Faruk Wasif, who was also a journalist, said that development was projected as an alternative to democracy during the autocratic regime of Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5.
The Hasina regime created a wrong narrative of development during the time, he added.
Dhaka University associate professor of mass communication and journalism Md Saiful Alam Chowdhury made a presentation on ‘Development Journey of Bangladesh: The Role of Media and Future’.
Ashish Damle, Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh, made the opening remarks at the event moderated by Md Sariful Islam, Head, Influencing, Communications, Advocacy and Media. A logo of the Development Media Forum was unveiled on the occasion.
