The registration of the online news portal will be started by this July, said Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, while talking to reporters on contemporary issues at the Secretariat on Monday.
“We took the initiative for online registration last March,” he said, adding, “But the whole process backfired due to coronavirus. We have already received reports from various agencies. So, I hope some online news portals will be registered within this month. And action will be taken against the rest.”
He further said that steps will be taken to ensure that the declaration of the newspaper does not fall into the hands of anonymous. “It is being investigated whether there was any irregularity in getting the declaration of Regent Hospital’s Shahed’s newspaper,” the minister added.
Regarding the approval of Shahed’s newspaper, the Information Minister said that there is no obligation of educational qualification for the approval of the newspaper. That is through the DC office. It then receives a declaration from the Department of Film and Publications (DFP).
“There are many publishers who have only metric passes or non-metric passes and there have been in the past. So, there is no educational qualification obligation for newspaper declaration,” he said.
He said the DFP was looking into whether Shahed had taken out the newspaper even though he had taken the declaration. In that case, if there is any irregularity, action will be taken. And even if there is no irregularity, the matter must be taken into consideration. “Whether a fraudster will have a newspaper declaration in his hand; We will examine it and take necessary action,” he added.
Asked if any such action would be taken like the measures taken for online registration, Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said, “We have a plan to control the existing system of newspaper declaration. But our purpose is not to control.”
In that case, control will be maintained so that the declaration of the newspaper or the magazine does not go into the hands of anyone or any fraudster can publish newspapers to protect his deception. There are also plans to bring transparency and make it compatible, added the Information Minister.
