Sponsored TV news, headlines illegal: HC

Declaring television news and headlines sponsored by commercial organisations illegal, the High Court today directed authorities of all TV channels not to broadcast such news and headlines after August 31 this year.

Delivering a verdict on a writ petition, the court observed that if the TV news and headlines are sponsored by any commercial organisation there will not be transparency in the news and headlines and therefore, people’s right to information will be denied.

Publishing news and headlines sponsored by any commercial organisations are against the spirit of the articles 31, 31 and 39 of the constitution, Barrister Masud Ahmed Sayeed, the lawyer for the writ petitioner, told The Daily Star citing the HC observations.

He also said the TV channels can continue running sponsored news and headlines until August 31 following the HC verdict.

Details of the observations and grounds on which the HC delivered the verdict could not be known immediately as its full text of the order has not released yet.

The HC bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Sashanka Shekhar Sarkar came up with the verdict following a writ petition filed by MA Matin, a retired teacher of Dhanmondi Government Laboratory High School, challenging the legality of sponsored news and headlines on television.

Matin filed the writ petition with the HC in October 2011 saying that most TV channels never publish news that goes against the interest of organisations or persons paying them to air advertisements.

The people's rights to information is thus denied, he said in the petition.

Following the petition, another HC bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik and Justice Md Nuruzzaman issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain why broadcast of news and headlines, sponsored by different organisations, on TV channels should not be declared illegal.

Secretaries to the ministries of information, law and home, inspector general of police, director general of Bangladesh Television and chief executives of private TV channels had been made respondents to the rule.

BTV, Independent TV and Channel 24 placed replies to the HC saying that they don’t run sponsored news and headlines.

Deputy Attorney General Tapas Kumar Biswas represented the state.