Staff Reporter:
State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat yesterday said misuse of free-dom of expression, free flow of information and freedom of mass media through spreading propaganda and falsehood is harmful for democracy.
“Such misdeeds will be brought under accountability,” he said while exchanging views with reporters after taking charges of the ministry.
Earlier, newly appointed Foreign Minister and outgoing Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Ha-san Mahmud introduced the newly appointed state minister to heads of different departments and offi-cials of the ministry.
Senior Secretary of the ministry Humayun Kabir Khandaker conducted the event.
Dr Hasan said, “The newly appointed state minister for information is a prudent person and my copart-ner for long.”
Arafat said free flow of information and freedom of expression are parts of the spirit of the great Libera-tion War. “We’ve ensured those for the progress of the country and for the interest of democracy and we want to keep it up in the upcoming days. But spread false propaganda and deceiving people are injus-tice,” he said.
The state minister said, “I want to work in the upcoming days on how to bring untrue and disinformation into accountability to facilitate the free flow of information in a better way.
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) Managing Director and Chief Editor Abul Kalam Azad, Chief In-formation Commissioner Dr Abdul Malek and heads of different departments under the ministry were present.
