Online media can run under existing laws: NOAB

Newspaper owners today demanded that the online media is run under existing laws instead of a mandatory separate registration for such outlets.

“Separate registration for online edition is not logical or necessary,” Matiur Rahman, president of Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB), said in a statement.

The statement comes after a government initiative to make separate registration mandatory for online media outlets, including the online editions of the print newspapers.

The Ministry of Information published a draft of the online policy in its website on 6 August. The draft policy spoke of operating online media through the national broadcasting commission, but the Press Information Department has begun registering online media, and the last date of applying for registration has been set at December 15.

The NOAB thinks this executive order of the information ministry before finalising the policy or forming the commission is “contradictory and motivated.”

The proposed online policy maintains that the commission will be formed and the online media will operate under the commission, but it will have no authority to implement recommendations.

As a result, the commission will be fully dependent on the government and information ministry, in particular, the NOAB says.

“Past experiences suggest that instead of ensuring press freedom, such initiative violates it,” the statement added.

Presently, there are a number of laws and regulations, including Bangladesh Information Security Policy Guidelines 2013, National Broadcasting Policy (NBP) 2014, Information and Communication Technology (Amended) Act 2013, Cyber Security Act 2015 (draft) that have direct or indirect links to the online media.

"So, instead of framing new policy, the laws and policies applicable to the print media can be applicable for the online media," according to the statement.

"If the government keeps registration authority in itself before forming the commission, the government will have strong control over media, which will hamper freedom of the media," the NOAB said.

It added that such registration process in the country’s socio-economic realities may lead to allegations of partisan bias, harassment and financial irregularities.

One of the objectives of registering the online media has been said to provide the media with government facilities and to control yellow journalism, the statement said.

"However, it was not clear how this would be done. There should have been detailed discussions with the stakeholders before making any decision," the NOAB said.

The NOAB also thinks this policy will have impacts on the freedom of press and future of this industry.

"Therefore, any initiative should be taken on the basis of logical discussions and realities, instead of rushing for it," the NOAB said.