Action Will Be Taken Against Unregistered Online: State Min

State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Muhammad Ali Arafat said that action will be taken against unregistered and illegal online. He said, "I agree with your demand—there is a need to bring discipline."

Since there is a process of registration, it needs to be implemented.

He said these things during an exchange of views with the executive members of Online Newsportal Association Bangladesh (ONAB) in the meeting room of the Ministry at the Secretariat on Tuesday (April 16).

The state minister said, you (journalists) are saying that there should be surveillance or control. The government does not monitor or control, but you are saying that there is some need for discipline. In other words, many people are managing online media beyond the registration process. The media here is so free, open and independent that it can operate without registration, and monitoring and regulation is what professional journalists are saying—it needs to be done.

He said, we don't do them. Which proves that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government believes in complete freedom of the media. But, at the same time, I think it's open, not free. Freedom has gone to a level that is limitless. Due to which there is a lack of discipline.