The Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) has made 39 demands for media freedom and protection of journalists, including the implementation of the ‘No Wage Board, No Media’ policy, formulation of a journalist protection policy, two-day weekly leave for journalists, and the repeal of all anti-press laws.

Secretary General of the organization, Quader Gani Chowdhury, presented these 39 points at a rally organized by the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists in front of the National Press Club on Saturday morning.

The rally, chaired by Dhaka Journalists Union President Shahidul Islam, was addressed by National Press Club President Hasan Hafiz, BFUJ Senior Vice President Obaidur Rahman Shahin, Vice Presidents Khairul Bashar, AKM Mohsin, Dhaka Journalists Union General Secretary Khurshid Alam, former National Press Club General Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmed, Jahangir Alam Prodhan, Bashir Jamal, Erfanul Haque Nahid, Morsalin Nomani, Rafiq Muhammad, Rashedul Haque, Didarul Alam, Sayeed Khan, Abu Bakr, Aparna Roy, Modabber Hossain, Khandaker Alamgir, DM Amar, Al Amin, among others.

Among the demands of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) are: “No Wage Board, No Media” policy to be implemented; an independent and effective Information Commission must be formed immediately.”

The ninth wage board should be implemented and the tenth wage board should be formed for print and electronic media, radio, news agencies, online and multimedia. Although the ninth wage board has been talked about for a long time for journalists, it is not being implemented in practice. The ninth wage board has not been implemented in most media. However, the cost of living is increasing due to the rise in commodity prices.

Therefore, the current government must quickly take effective steps to implement the Ninth Wage Board and form the Tenth Wage Board.
A journalist protection policy must be formulated. Similarly, the freedom of the press must be protected at all costs. If it is not protected by a legal framework, the journalistic community will continue to be oppressed by the state apparatus, and that is what is happening constantly at the present time.

Journalists should have a 2-day weekly holiday. Government institutions enjoy 2 days off a week. Many private institutions also have a 2-day holiday system. Journalists do not have a fixed work schedule. They do not even get a weekly holiday on a specific day of the week.

This is increasing the physical and mental stress on them.

The killing, harassment and torture of journalists must stop. All the murders of journalists, including the journalist couple Sagar and Runi, must be swiftly prosecuted; all anti-liberation laws of the media must be repealed.

According to the law, a separate labor court should be established to ensure that journalists get their fair share. Journalists are subjected to various forms of harassment and assault while doing their job. And they have to carry these cases around the courtroom. All cases related to journalism should be filed in labor courts, not police stations or courts.

A ‘comprehensive national media policy’ should be formulated for newspapers, news agencies, radio, television, online, multimedia. Under this comprehensive policy, there will be different policies for each different media. If a complete and comprehensive policy is formulated instead of formulating many policies, it will be easier to implement and comply with.

There should be a uniform wage board for newspapers, online, television, radio, news agencies and multimedia. Currently, there is a wage board for print media, but there is no wage board for television and online. Therefore, television journalists have to return home empty-handed after their jobs. This is extremely inhumane.

The participation of the journalistic community must be ensured at all levels of state administration and in law-making and policy-making. Until the participation of the journalistic community in the state structure is ensured, independent journalism will not be possible. At present, journalists are being harassed by the state apparatus on a large scale for various reasons and without any reason while performing their professional duties. Apart from that, they are being harassed by cases and arrests.

The verbal dismissal of journalists must be stopped and those who have already been dismissed must be reinstated; the debts of journalists who have been dismissed or dismissed must be paid within 90 days; no media outlet can hire any journalist on a temporary, permanent or contractual basis without an appointment letter, an identity card with a photo, and without pay.

Journalists in the district should be paid a respectable salary. Although some newspapers or TV channels pay salaries at the district level, most media houses do not pay even a single taka to the upazila representatives. Moreover, they are pressured to advertise. Advertising is given priority over news. If they cannot advertise regularly, they are fired. This must be stopped.

Journalists outside Dhaka should be promoted to in-house reporters after working as journalists for three years; the government and the media should quickly formulate a journalist recruitment policy; journalists’ salaries should be increased at the beginning of the year in line with the average inflation of the previous year. Other allowances should be adjusted for inflation at least every two years.

The organization should make arrangements for compensation if cameras, laptops, motorcycles, cars, and valuable equipment are damaged during the performance of professional duties, especially in risky assignments. There should be accident insurance for physical damage. The employer should take care of medical treatment. The organization should allocate funds to cover risky assignments. There should be special safety equipment and accident allowance for journalists. Accident and medical insurance, life insurance, provident fund, and gratuity should be provided for permanent journalists. Separate arrangements should be made in the organization for legal assistance for journalists. A suitable environment should be provided for women journalists, especially separate restrooms for them.

Criminal cases filed against journalists for reporting must be withdrawn and dismissed; a legal framework must be created to ensure the freedom and autonomy of the media; intelligence agencies cannot give any instructions to any media outlet; no media outlet/media outlet can be directly or indirectly managed by intelligence agencies.

Media organizations will have to submit their wage board implementation reports to the government authorities every three months. It will be monitored whether it is being implemented properly or not. Arrangements will have to be made for salary payment to bank accounts. This will make it easy to identify whether the wage board has actually been implemented or not.

The minimum educational qualification for employment as a journalist is to be a graduate. The starting salary of journalists should be at least 35,000 taka and increments should be given every year; BTRC, the regulatory body for issuing radio and television licenses, should be completely overhauled. Qualifications should be the main basis for obtaining licenses, not party considerations.

As long as a journalist is physically and mentally fit to perform his duties, and there are no proven allegations of financial corruption or moral turpitude against him, he cannot be retired; journalists working in the media must be paid their salaries regularly.

The registration process of the media in the country is still outdated. If someone is properly eligible for media registration, then the application should be settled as soon as possible. The application process should also be made online. Strict action should be taken against all kinds of irregularities including harassment, bribery, etc. to get registration. To stop the devaluation and harassment of the media in the name of police verification, a special cell related to media registration can be set up at any place. Everything from verification to registration will be done by experienced officials of the special cell.

The Department of Film and Publication currently determines the circulation numbers and advertising rates of print newspapers. There are many loopholes here. There are allegations that newspapers that do not even print 500 copies daily are charging higher advertising rates in exchange for money by showing false information that they print millions of copies. Rate ups and downs in exchange for money must be stopped.

The advertising rate of the media must be increased. It is almost impossible to sustain the current media with a rate of 900 taka. Considering the current inflation, the rate must be increased by at least 50 percent. The same applies to radio, television and online media. Realistic advertising policies must be made for all media.

The state-run media outlets Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha must be kept free from government control, just as a system must be ensured to free corporate organizations or privately owned TV-radio and newspapers from the influence of the owners’ personal and business interests; the cancellation of media declarations must be stopped in words. If the government closes a media outlet, the government must bear the salaries of all the officials and employees of that media outlet for at least 6 months.

The policy that the Election Commission has formulated for journalists/media workers responsible for collecting election news will restrict the freedom of the media and the right of citizens to know election information. It will create an undesirable obstacle in the free movement, observation and access to information of media workers, especially in collecting election-related news. We demand an immediate amendment to this policy.

Import duty on newsprint should be reduced to 2 percent (currently 5 percent), VAT should be reduced to 5 percent instead of 15 percent, Advance Income Tax (AIT) should be reduced from 5 percent and Advance Tax (AT) should be reduced from 5 percent to a minimum of 1 percent, and corporate tax should be set at a minimum or abolished, considering newspapers as a service industry.

The media as a whole should be declared an industry and appropriate measures should be taken to develop this industry. Arrangements should be made to pay the government advertisement bills as soon as possible. In addition, in the past few days, we have seen that advertisements have been stopped by threatening various institutions if they do not provide news as per the government’s preference. Stopping advertisements in any media outlet due to news should be included as a crime.

Journalism must be made unhindered. A ‘fear-free’ environment must be created for journalists. Strict action must be taken against mob justice; I demand that political parties include a commitment to protect press freedom in their election manifestos.

Presenting 39 demands, Quader Gani Chowdhury said, “We want a changed media where a journalist can go deep into the incident and reveal the truth without pressure from any party. Where investigation will be the gathering of truth and a sense of responsibility will be the main force of journalism.”

Journalists held protests across the country on Friday demanding the same thing.