Govt Looks For Skilled Columnists to Counter Anti-National Propaganda

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed the embassies to take initiatives to repatriate those who are conducting anti-government activities, making inflammatory statements and listed terrorists from abroad.

Missions have been instructed to apply to the governments of the respective countries for this. Besides, the government is looking for skilled columnists to highlight the positive aspects of the government in foreign media.

This information was revealed from the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhawan today (September 13).

In the previous meeting of the committee, various negative campaigns against Bangladesh abroad were discussed and the ministry was recommended to take appropriate measures to stop them. The recommendation also calls for the formation of a separate cell to monitor these activities. The progress report was given by the ministry in today's meeting.

According to the report, the Public Security Division has given the Ministry of External Affairs a list of those who are spreading propaganda against the government in the diaspora. In this regard, the Ministry has given instructions to the Bangladesh Missions to take necessary measures. The ambassadors of Bangladesh have been asked to regularly monitor the activities of the concerned persons and their posts on social media besides identifying the laws and regulations applicable to the respective countries of the identified persons.

The report also mentions the creation of a new division in the ministry. According to the recommendation of the standing committee to widely highlight the positive aspects of Bangladesh to the world and counter the negative propaganda against Bangladesh, an initiative has been taken to create a sub-branch called 'Immigrant Diplomacy' in the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry and appoint two Assistant Secretary level officials including a director. The work of sending proposals to other stakeholders including the Ministry of Public Administration and Finance Division has started for creating the sub-branch.

In the meeting of the parliamentary committee held last August, Foreign Secretary Masood bin Momen said, "Capitalizing the economic recession that is going on all over the world, the anti-government groups are carrying out various negative campaigns inside and outside the country." The ministry is looking into the matter seriously.

Member of Parliament Nahim Razzak said, "Various expatriates outside the country are carrying out negative campaigns against Bangladesh. Missions should play a strong role in dealing with it. In addition to dealing with that, I have asked the ministry to form a separate cell to highlight the positive aspects of Bangladesh to the world.

In the meeting, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said, "Since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not have skilled manpower to write columns with various information, arrangements have been made to write positive columns about Bangladesh through outsourcing with remuneration." But the number of columnists to write good columns is also very few.

In the next year and a half, the opposition forces may criticize the current government. At this time, the minister drew the attention of the committee members to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs if they are looking for a good columnist.

Meanwhile, in today's meeting, the committee recommends to promote constructive and positive articles, essays, paragraphs in order to keep the image of Bangladesh intact in the country and outside the world.

Chairman of the committee Muhammad Farooq Khan chaired the meeting and other participants were- Nurul Islam Nahid, Ghulam Farooq Khandkar Prince, Abdul Majeed Khan, Habibe Millat, Nahim Razzaq and Qazi Nabeel Ahmed.