A Correspondent:
Chattogram: Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan yesterday said the government is working to empower the people rather than rule over them.
“Our goal is to build a Bangladesh where the people are the sole owners of power and where they re-ceive services through their chosen service providers,” he told a view-exchange meeting with journalists after visiting the Chattogram Press Club yesterday.
“We will fulfill our responsibilities,” the minister added.
Swapan said that any institution loses its effectiveness if it becomes partisan, centered on individuals or controlled by specific families. “It is the responsibility of the media to criticize such tendencies. When an institution like a press club becomes partisan, we must understand what fascism means. Your own statements have proven this,” he said.
He alleged that many institutions across the country had been politicized under the previous government. “That is why they were punished by the people. Yesterday, they face allegations of murder, enforced disappearance and the destruction of institutions. They have lost both the moral and political ground to participate in elections or speak on democratic principles,” he said.
Among others, Abu Sufian, MP; President of the Jatiya Press Club and Editor of Daily Kaler Kantho Hasan Hafiz, Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists Secretary General Quader Gani Chowdhury, Chattogram Deputy Commissioner Zahidul Islam Miah, Chattogram Metropolitan Union of Journalists President Mohammad Shahnawaz, were present.
Chattogram Press Club President Zahidul Karim Kochi chaired the meeting.
