AL expects due coverage from media: Obaidul Quader

Road transport and bridges minister and general secretary of ruling Awami League, Obaidul Quader, on Tuesday said his party doesn’t expect any partiality from media.

“It is not fair that media will give 100 per cent coverage on Awami League programme. News of opposition parties should also get coverage as per importance. But Awami League expects its due coverage,” he said.

Quader was addressing a meeting to exchange views with Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) at Road Transport and Highways Division conference room at the secretariat in afternoon, said a press release.

“We are not opponent of newspapers. We are associates of each other. We also don’t expect any hostility in the relations,” he said.

He also expressed his optimism that the country’s development and progress will march forward with the mutual cooperation between the government and the media.

Led by NOAB president and Times Media Limited managing director AK Azad, the meeting was attended by its vice-president and the daily New Age publisher ASM Shahidullah Khan, NOAB member and Prothom Alo editor and publisher Matiur Rahman, Daily Star editor and publisher Mahfuz Anam, NOAB treasurer and Manabzamin chief editor and publisher Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Bhorer Kagoj managing director and Awami League Central Working Committee member Tariq Sujat, Daily Financial Express editor and its representative to NOAB Shamsul Haque Jahid and Banik Barta editor and publisher Dewan Hanif Mahmud, among others.

At the outset of the meeting, written statement of NOAB on drafts of five acts relating to mass media of recent time was submitted to the minister.

NOAB made a call to hold talks with all stakeholders on the laws before finalising those.

Later, the association presented existing problems of newspaper industry to the minister.