2,810 newspapers in circulation in Bangladesh: Inu

Information Minister Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu on Sunday said as many as 2,810 newspapers including daily, weekly, fortnightly and monthly are in circulation in Bangladesh while the number of electronic media is also on rise.

"The number of media houses are increasing as the present government follows a liberal policy and never imposes any censorship on any media," he told the Jatiya Sangsad while replying to a question of treasury bench member Nurunnabi Chowdhury from Bhola-3 constituency.

The information minister said these media are playing a very significant role in not only presenting objective news but also enriching new generation`s wisdom based on national responsibilities and social values.

Responding to a query of lawmaker M Faridul Haque Khan of Jamalpur-2 constituency, he said the government has enacted the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2009 to empower the people through ensuring their access to information.

The Information Commission in the meantime imparted training on `Right to Information Act, 2009` to 17,378 people including journalists, professionals and religious leaders, he said.

"Besides the government has a plan to create awareness among the people through training in more 24 districts and 67 upazillas across the country in the 2015-16 fiscal," Inu added.

Presenting a statistics, the information minister said 67,390 people out of 69,862 information-seekers were given their necessary information from the commission till December of 2014.

On a question from treasury bench member Habibur Rahman Molla from Dhaka-5, Inu said the government has taken necessary steps to formulate "the Online Media Policy, 2015" as per the electoral pledge, 2014 of the present government.

In reply to a supplementary from treasury bench member Sukomar Ranjan Ghosh, the information minister told the parliament that the present government also started working to restore healthy atmosphere in the Film Industry of the country.