Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu yesterday said he hoped the draft of the National Broadcast Act-2016 would be placed in parliament for passage in its next session.
The current session of the Jatiya Sangsad ends on March 9, as per a decision of the business advisory committee. The next session begins within the next 60 days.
Speaking at a 'Meet-the-Reporters' programme at Dhaka Reporters' Unity, Inu said, “After working on it for nearly two years, we are preparing to place the draft National Broadcast Act before the cabinet and the parliament”.
A broadcast commission would be formed based on the act. The commission would be a strong semi-judicial body empowered to issue or cancel licences of electronic and online media platforms, he said.
The minister also talked about several other issues, including the ninth wage board for journalists, Sagar-Runi murder and BNP's polls-time government formula.
He termed the BNP formula a “conspiracy to foil elections” and “an attempt to create grounds for an abnormal government”.
BNP and its chief Khaleda Zia were looking for scopes to “bargain with the government in a bid to escape trial”, he said.
On the journalist couple murder, he said the non-completion of the legal procedures in the case was a failure of the government and that it was working to come out of that failure.
Inu also said the government has completed the groundwork for the formation of the ninth wage board for the journalists of newspapers and electronic media.
He said they sought the name of a Supreme Court justice after completing the groundwork for the wage board formation. The electronic media would be included in the wage board this time, he added.