The 'Bangladesh Sangbad Sagstha (BSS) Bill 2018' was passed in Parliament on Saturday to properly run the organisation under a legal framework.
The state-run media outlet emerged as the national news agency in 1972 and being run under an ordinance promulgated in 1979. Information Minister Hasanul Huq Inu moved the bill which was passed by voice vote, reports UNB.
BSS was established on January 1, 1972 as the then Dhaka Bureau of the erstwhile Associate Press of Pakistan (APP). It was then turned into a news agency of Bangladesh and an ordinance was promulgated during the military regime in 1979. The draft law suggests the national news agency to be operated by a 13-member Board of Directors with three years' tenure which will include representatives from different ministries, including the home and foreign ministries, alongside senior journalists. The government will appoint the chairman of the board while a person having 18 years of experience in journalism would be eligible for the post of the Managing Director and Chief Editor of the national news agency.