Make people optimistic, Hasan asks journalists

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DHAKA, June 11, 2021 (BSS) – Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today urged journalists to make people optimistic and tell them about the indomitable path of the country’s development.

“The role of journalists is very important in making people optimistic alongside continuing efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in the country,” he told a meeting here.

Speaking as the chief guest at the biennial general meeting of Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum (BSRF) held at the ERF auditorium, Hasan, also the Awami League joint general secretary, said Bangladesh is one of the densely populated countries in the world and it frequently experiences natural disasters.

Despite that, he said, Bangladesh has moved forward at an indomitable pace even amid the coronavirus epidemic and it exceeded neighbouring India and Pakistan in per capita income.

The indomitable pace of the development must be presented before the nation and then people will be optimistic, the AL general secretary said.

He said AL President Sheikh Hasina was released from prison on June 11 in 2008 and in fact, it was the release day of democracy.

Noting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a media-friendly one, the information minister said like the hopeless people, a hopeless society cannot move forward so media must highlight the inconsistencies of the society.

Media should focus on the success, development and progress of a society too, he added.

“Once upon a time we were rich when the world economy was agriculture-based. Three crops are grown a year in lesser countries,” Hasan said.

And, he said, when the world economy was depended on industries, the industrialised countries started selling industrial goods to the countries like Bangladesh by taking raw materials from these countries and they advanced a lot.

“We want to change this scenario. We want to be a prosperous country again and that’s why it is an urgent for all, including the journalist community, to work together,” the information minister said.

Chaired by BSRF president Tapan Biswas and conducted by its general secretary Shamim Ahmed, the meeting was attended, among others, by BSRF leaders Syed Shahnewaz Karim and Shyamol Sarkar.