Process of Shutting Down Unregistered Online News Portals Started

The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) has started the process of shutting down unregistered online news portals following a court order.

The process of shutting down the unregistered online news portal has been reported since noon on Tuesday (September 28). Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar confirmed the matter.

The minister said the BTRC had made the list as per the directions of the court. Unregistered news portals are being shut down based on that list.

The minister further said that if there is any mistake in the process of closure, if any portal is closed by mistake, then the concerned online portal authorities will contact BTRC and if they provide proof of registration information, those sites will be opened.

BTRC chairman Shyam Sundar Sikder said the process of shutting down unregistered online news portals has begun.

Top news portals like bdnews24, banglanews24, JagoNews24, TBS were blocked after 5 pm that day. However, after 6 pm, the websites of these new portals were resumed again.

Representatives of some of the closed online news portals said that their news portals are registered. There is no reason to close these portals. They have already begun the process of reopening it by talking to their lawyers.