Journalist Boycott BB Press Conference Following Embargo On Media Access

The journalists boycotted the press conference of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) scheduled for Wednesday as part of their protest to impose an embargo on media access to the central bank.

All journalists left the press briefing that began around 2:30pm at the conference room of the central bank headquarters in Motijheel area of Dhaka.

BB Deputy Governor Habibur Rahman and its Executive Director also Spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque, among others, were present at the press conference.  

At the beginning of the press briefing, the journalists sought clarification from the BB officials regarding the reasons behind the media access ban to the central bank. However, they did not receive any satisfactory response from the attending officials.

At one point, the attending journalists boycotted the briefing following the rigid stance of the BB on its embargo,

Earlier, BB Spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque spoke to the media that the journalists can only visit the spokesperson with permission on a specific ground.

If an official grants a pass to a journalist, the journalist can only meet the official. Otherwise, journalists will no longer have the access to any department of the central bank as they did before, he said.

In protest against the decision, the journalists covering reports related to the banking sector have been urging the authorities concerned to revoke the embargo for the greater interest of facilitating smooth journalism.

Meanwhile, the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB), Editors’ Council, Economic Reporters’ Forum, Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) expressed their condemnation to the BB over such decision.

In a statement the NOAB and the Editors’ Council have said that Bangladesh Bank’s ‘unwritten ban’ on journalists’ access to its headquarters amounts to taking away of media freedom.