TV channels enjoying full freedom in Bangladesh: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said all the television (TV) channels are enjoying complete freedom in Bangladesh.

“All the television channels have been enjoying freedom,” she said when a delegation of the Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO) called on her at the Prime Minister’s Office here.

The primer said, “Bangladesh had earlier only a single television channel BTV (Bangladesh Television). We have opened it (in private sector) after assuming office in 1996.”

She said that her government has given liberty to the TV channels to broadcast news.

PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the media after the meeting.

Members of the ATCO delegation said that they have been working sincerely with the authority concerned to start complete transmission of all the private television channels through the Bangabandhu Satellite-1 from October 1 next.

They placed a few demands before the prime minister, including making all the TV channels as pay ones after bringing the cable TV’s distribution process under a digitization process.

Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, PM’s Adviser and owner of Independent Television Salman F Rahman and Information Secretary Abdul Malek were present on the occasion.

Among others, ATCO Chairman and owner of Masranga Television Anjan Chowdhury, owner of the DBC Television Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, Ekattor TV Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director Mozammel Haque Babu and Managing Director (MD) of Samoy TV Ahmed Jobair attended the meeting.