State minister for information and broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat on Tuesday said that the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has been asked to close all unregistered online portals.
He gave the information to the Jatiya Sangsad while replying to a supplementary question of Feroz Ahmed Swapan, elected from Satkhira-1 constituency.
Swapan said in his supplementary question that besides, professional journalistic activities, Bangladesh is flooded with yellow journalism, too.聽
鈥榃e don鈥檛 know the rules of online portals. We are disturbed by unregistered online newspapers. Is there any controlling measure?鈥� he asked.
In response, Arafat said that his ministry is working very closely on these issues.
鈥楬e [Feroz] rightly said that online portals are mushrooming. They practice yellow journalism, not journalism,鈥� he said.
The state minister said that misinformation creates various problems in the society.
鈥業nterestingly, those who do journalism with professionalism have demanded the closure of such portals and online magazines,鈥� he added.
Arafat mentioned that journalists allege that those who practise yellow journalism are actually harming professional journalists.
鈥楾his demand is not only from the lawmakers or politicians or people from other quarters, but from the journalist community itself,鈥� he added.
He said that journalists complain that there are many unregistered online portals that are spreading misinformation and doing bad reporting.
鈥楾o stop them, I gave an instruction a few days ago. I will send to the BTRC the full list of well-established media houses, including electronic and print media and their registered portals, and also all the portals that have applied [for registration],鈥� he added.
He mentioned that many of the existing online portals are running unregistered and have not applied for registration.
鈥榃e will request them [BTRC] to close them all,鈥� he added.