We hail Press Council verdict
Media must maintain highest ethical standards
WE hail the verdict of the Press Council (PC) regarding some recent false, fabricated and motivated reports in the daily Kaler Kantha. We are happy to note the clarity and emphatic manner in which the Press Council reached its decision. Indeed, it is refreshing to observe that the body has reasserted its ability and capacity to adjudicate matters concerning the media. This surely augurs well for journalism especially given the fact that recourse to the PC holds out the promise of the proceedings being less time consuming and decisive. We would like to advise everyone involved with the media and also readers that in cases where media houses and individuals might feel aggrieved by other media reports, they can take the perfectly logical step of recording their grievances with the Press Council. Such a step, besides preventing journalists from being harassed unnecessarily, will be a spur to future activism on the part of the PC. The council's potential should now dawn on those needing it in future.
Now that the PC has acted, it is our hope that the management of daily Kaler Kantho will go for serious introspection of its role and what damage yellow journalism can do to healthy journalism. The daily should eschew the egotistical and revisit the issues raised by the PC judgement from an ethical and professional point of view. For in the media world today, it is hugely important that we discard unethical journalism and return to being the voices of truth, a fundamental objective of journalism. Unfortunately, too often some individuals indulge in personal vendetta and character assassination through misusing journalism and media houses. This must come to an end. All media organizations must uphold the highest standards of ethics in their presentation of news and comments. We must remember that as “watchdogs” of the public interest, newspapers are often subjected to the wrath of those who exercise power. And powerful quarters have never been loath to come down heavily on the press. In such moments of crises, it is the people, the readers, who stand by newspapers and vindicate their cause. It is thus not acceptable that this public support be squandered by a recourse to unethical practices by a section of the media. Public trust is a strength that will fritter away if we indulge in unethical and yellow journalism. We must not let that happen.
Let this seminal judgment of the Press Council be a beacon highlighting intellectual honesty and integrity in journalism. Let this ethics and morality-based, forward-looking verdict be a guideline for the future.
Relocation of chemical depots
Act on task force recommendations
SOME 10 months after the devastating fire from a chemical warehouse and about eight months after the formation of a taskforce to find out means to stop recurrence of such incidents, the government seems to be swinging into action. It has decided to relocate chemical depots and factories from their present locations to the other side of the Buriganga.
There are some 1000 chemical factories and warehouses in the city, and of them, only 127 have any licences whatsoever.
We must thank our stars that Nimtoli-like tragedies have not occurred so far. But the situation is much more serious than the concern we have shown in taking a prompt decision on shifting such hazardous establishments away from the city centres.
Earlier, especially after the Nimtoli fire tragedy we had advised the government on more than one occasion to take immediate measures to remove these factories from within the heart of the city. But as usual the bureaucratic machinery took this long to take such an important
decision.
The long delay notwithstanding, we commend the government for having taken a firm decision after all to relocate the warehouses of flammable chemicals as well as the plastic factories that use such flammable chemicals to a designated spot outside the city.
The task force on whose recommendations two committees have been formed tasked with relocation and rehabilitation of the chemical warehouses and factories, has also stressed intensification of the drives against such illegal establishments in the city. As recommended, the government should not delay in launching such drive. And as in every other case of drive by the law-enforcers to carry out any government or statutory order, utmost care will be necessary to ensure that the enforcers of the law remain above board and incorruptible.
The committee constituted to see through the relocation process will be expected to complete the job within a specific time frame
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