Dhaka, Sept 27 – Journalists from various media outlets on Friday urged the government to amend the new wage structure and remove inconsistency in the ninth wage board.The call came at a roundtable titled ‘existing crisis in mass media: safeguard of the interests of the journalists’ organised by ‘Sangbadik Shartho Surokkha Parishad’ at the Jatiya Press Club.
Prime Minister’s former media adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury said, “There’re some inconsistencies in the new wage board which should be amended. We need to be united to meet journalists’ demand.”
“The incentive of the government is necessary for the industry so that the media owners can pay the salary, allowance and bonuses as per the wage board,” he added.
Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Secretary General Saban Mahmud described the roundtable as a timely initiative.
“Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh is conspiring (about new wage structure). BFUJ and Dhaka Union of Journalists can protest against it. If we call any countrywide programme, you (all journalists) should take part,” he said.
Anup Kumar Khastagir, Deputy Director General of Bangladesh Television said that media is the fourth state of a country but journalists do not get respectable salary.
There is huge salary disparity in the media sector, he said.
DUJ General Secretary Sohel Haider, journalist leader Abdul Jalil Bhuiyan, Additional Secretary of Information Ministry Mizanul Alam and journalist leader Quddus Afrad, among others, were present at the roundtable. – UNB
