HC issues ban on sponsored TV news, headlines

Staff Correspondent: Declaring it illegal, the High Court (HC) on Monday issued a restriction on airing news headlines and different parts of news in private television channels with commercial sponsorship.

An HC division bench comprising Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Sashanka Shekhar Sarkar passed the order after holding hearing on a writ filed in this regard.

“Nowadays we get to see the news presenters saying ‘this bank business news, that hospital health news’. The court has banned such commercials and asked all the television channels to comply with the order from September 1,” Barrister Masud Ahmed Sayeed, who moved the writ, told newsmen.

A schoolteacher named MA Matin filed the writ in 2011, saying such acts can bring question mark on the neutrality of the TV news. The High Court later issued rule on the matter and today came up with the order after holding final hearing.


risingbd/Dhaka/May 6, 2019/Mehidi/AI