Photo : Collected
Expressing deep concern over restricting journalists’ access to the Bangladesh Bank building, the anti-graft body Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called on the banking regulator to withdraw the restrictions.
In a statement on Friday, the organisation called for immediate withdrawal of the decision which put "unprecedented obstacles in the way of the media professionals' responsibility in disclosing banking and financial sector information for public interest”.
"According to media reports, journalists were facing obstacles for more than a month in accessing the Bangladesh Bank building to collect information about the banking and financial sector. In this case, the help of the governor was sought to solve the problem, but there was no positive result," read the statement.
Terming the central bank's move as an "unethical and arbitrary" barrier to the way of ensuring the legal right of people to know information, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, "What message does the top leadership of the Bangladesh Bank want to send to everyone through the decision to stop the free flow of information when the banking sector is plagued by various crises including bad loans, financial frauds and lack of overall good governance? What does the Bangladesh Bank want to achieve through this?
"Is this initiative to hide the information regarding their own failure to establish good governance in the banking sector that has reached the edge of the abyss? Or is this an attempt to protect the interests of those who are responsible for the crisis in this sector?"
In the past few years, most of the information about the financial sector scams of thousands of crores of taka has been published to the public by journalists, said Dr Iftekharuzzaman, adding, "Should we assume that the Bangladesh Bank is working to ensure the continued protection of the criminal circles involved in this sector's irregularities including loan default, forgery and money laundering, and so it is taking such reprehensible steps to hide the fact that Bangladesh Bank's policies and leadership have become hostages in the hands of those circles?"
Messenger/Fameema
