Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed deep concern over the imposition of restrictions on journalists’ access to the Bangladesh Bank and called the regulatory body of the country’s financial sector immediately withdraw the decision.

In a statement issued on Friday, TIB called for the immediate withdrawal of those measures, highlighting the unprecedented impediments hindering the media’s ability to fulfill its professional duty of disclosing vital banking and financial sector information in the public interest.

“According to the news published in the media, the media and journalists were facing obstacles for almost more than a month in accessing the Bangladesh Bank to collect information about the banking and financial sector. In this case, the help of the governor was sought to solve the problem, but there was no positive result,” reads the statement.

TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said Bangladesh Bank’s “unethical and arbitrary” step is a barrier in the way of ensuring the legal right of the people to know the information.

He asked, “What message does the top leadership of Bangladesh Bank want to send to everyone through the decision to stop the free flow of information when the banking sector is plagued by various crises including bad debt, financial fraud and lack of overall good governance”

He further asked, “Is this initiative to hide the information regarding their own failure to establish good governance in the banking sector that has reached the edge of the abyss or is this an attempt to protect the interests of those who are responsible for the crisis in this sector?”

Crediting media for publishing most of the information about the financial sector scams of thousands of crores of taka Dr Zaman said, “Should we assume that Bangladesh Bank is working to ensure the continued protection of the criminal circles involved in this sector’s irregularities including loan default, forgery and money laundering, and so it is taking taking such reprehensible steps to hide the fact that Bangladesh Bank’s policies and leadership have become hostages in the hands of those circles?”

Earlier on Thursday, a delegation from the economic reporters’ apex body Economic Reporters’ Forum demanded hassle-free and unrestricted entry into the BB headquarters.

The ERF placed the demand during a meeting with the Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder regarding the restrictions on financial journalists’ access to the central bank.