The Supreme Court on Sunday cleared the bar for television channels to broadcast sponsoring of TV news and headlines.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday stayed a High Court verdict that declared the television news and the headlines sponsored by commercial organisations as illegal and also asked the authorities of all TV channels not to telecast such news and headlines after August 31, 2019.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after hearing four leave to appeal petitions filed by four organisations, BTRC, Channel i, Maasranga Television and Deepto TV, challenging the High Court verdict.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, advocates Murad Reza and Md Assaduzzaman appeared for the TV channels individually while Barrister Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib appeared for BTRC.
Now the TV channels have no bar to telecast these kinds of news and the headlines sponsored by commercial organisations, said Khandaker Reza-E-Raquib.
Lawyer AM Amin Uddin said, "We told the court that advertisements are the main sources of income of the TV channels. Now if it shuts down, many TV channels will not be able to survive. They survive on this income."
"Later, we brought the law related to advertisement of 1952 before the court. After hearing us the court stayed the High Court verdict," added the lawyer.
MA Matin, a retired teacher of Dhanmondi Government Laboratory High School, filed the writ petition on October 17, 2011 challenging the legality of sponsored news and headlines on television.
