State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat has expressed solidarity with the journalists regarding their demand to stop the operation of unregistered and illegal online news portals and assured them of taking measures to this end.

“I completely agree with you. I’ll take steps to meet your demand,” he said.
The state minister said this at a meeting with the executive committee of the Online News Portal Association Bangladesh (ONAB) at the conference room of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The government of Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina believes in free media and full freedom of the press, Arafat said, adding, “We have no intention to monitor or control the media or online news portals.”

“However, your (professional journalists) suggestion for monitoring the news portals for bringing discipline in media proved that the government doesn’t control the media”, he said.
ONAB President Mollah M Amzad Hossain, Vice-Presidents Latiful Bari Hamim and Soumitra Deb, Joint Secretaries Siddiqur Rahman and Ashraful Kabir Asif and executive members Nazrul Islam Mithu, Touhidul Islam Mintu, Rafiqul Bashar, Hamid Md Jasim, Mohsin Hossain, Ayon Ahmed and Khokon Kumar Roy were present on the occasion.