Yasser vows steps to implement wage board for journos

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Yasser Khan Choudhury has said the government will take necessary initiatives to implement the Wage Board in the interest of journalists and may raise the matter in the Cabinet if required.

He made the remarks at a views-exchange meeting with leaders of the Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Sunday.

Yasser said there had been a prolonged deadlock over the Wage Board and that the 9th Wage Board Award had not been properly implemented.

He said journalists’ demands for formation of the 10th Wage Board had also brought the implementation of the 9th Wage Board Award back into discussion.

“The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is holding discussions with the Ministry of Labour and other concerned parties in this regard, and the initiative will be strengthened further,” he said.

The state minister stressed the need to ensure journalists’ protection and welfare, saying they play an important role in providing accurate information to the public.

If proper facilities are not ensured, good journalists could lose interest in the profession and new journalists of quality would not emerge, he said.

He also called on media owners to be sincere about journalists’ rights and welfare, noting that government announcements alone would not ensure the desired benefits unless the concerned institutions implemented them.

Yasser said there was also a need to define who should be recognised as journalists, as genuine professionals who had worked in journalism for a long time were facing threats from fake journalists.