Bangladesh Sangbadpatra Shilpa Parishad, an organization of the owners of newspaper, placed a 14-point demand including the payment of all outstanding advertisement bills owed by newspapers to government agencies, including Department of Films and Publications (DFP), by next June.
If not, the leaders of this organisation and publishers warned of waging a systematic movement to realise their demands from next July.
The demands were read out during a regular meeting addressing the ongoing problems of the newspaper industry and its solutions at the Daily Industry newspaper office in Dhaka on Saturday with the organization’s president Dr. Enayet Karim in the chair.
General Secretary of the organization Yunus Sohag put forward the demands during the meeting.
The other demands included the formulation of policies for the equitable distribution of government advertisements including at least four Bengali and two English newspapers, ending price discrimination of government advertisements in English and Bengali newspapers, introducing government advertisement prices on online portals of registered newspapers, and increasing the rate of government advertisements based on market inflation.
The demands also included the provision of low-interest loans for the newspaper industry, accommodation for journalists-employees, a special allocation of Tk 5,000 crore, the introduction of a special pension scheme for journalists and media workers, repeal of all black laws including the Digital Security Act, and providing VIP status to all editors.
The leaders expressed their concern, stating that without timely payment of outstanding advertising bills, it would be challenging to sustain publications and pay journalists' salaries.
The publishers sought government intervention and cooperation, particularly from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the state minister for information and broadcasting, to sustain the newspaper industry.
