Newspaper owners have urged the government to take realistic steps to address some hurdles facing the newspaper industry in a bid to ensure freedom of press and healthy growth of the industry.
They also pointed out that the price of imported newsprint and the cost of publications posted a significant rise following the impact of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The Newspapers Owners' Association (NOAB) made the observations while meeting with Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader at the latter's Secretariat office on Tuesday, according to a NOAB statement.
The NOAB delegation led by its president AK Azad also put forward their valuable opinions on five draft laws regarding the media industry.
They, however, termed the existing Digital Security Act and some proposed laws as detrimental to freedom of press and expression.
Keeping this in view, they called upon the government to sit with all the stakeholders before finalising such laws.
About the increased cost of production, they said publishing cost of a copy of newspaper went up to Tk 26 while it is being sold at Tk 12 only.
Apart from that, they informed that the newspaper outlets have to pay sales commission and other taxes and VAT which causes huge financial losses to them.
Simultaneously, the fall in the volume of private advertisement coupled with the huge pending bills of the government advertisements put the industry in a difficult situation to run their operations.
However, the minister assured the NOAB members of discussing the issue with the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Information Minister Hasan Mahmud.
NOAB vice president and publisher of the New Age ASM Shahidullah Khan, Editor and Publisher of Prothom Alo Matiur Rahman, editor and publisher of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam, Editor of The Financial Express (FE) and FE representative in NOAB Shamsul Huq Zahid, Editor and Publisher of Manabzamin Matiur Rahman Choudhury, Editor and Publisher of Bonik Barta Dewan Hanif Mahmud and Managing Director and publisher of Bhorer Kagoj Tarik Sujat attended the meeting.
