Is the ban on entry of journalists to Bangladesh Bank to cover up the failure?

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed deep concern over the imposition of restrictions on the access of journalists to Bangladesh Bank, the regulatory body of the financial sector. TIB has also questioned whether the central bank has taken such an initiative to hide the information about its failure to establish good governance in the banking sector.

In a statement on Friday (April 26), the agency termed the move as an “unprecedented obstacle to the media’s professional responsibility to disclose information on the banking and financial sector in the public interest.” It has been called for immediate withdrawal of this directive.

The statement said, according to the news published in the media, the media and journalists were facing obstacles for more than a month in accessing the Bangladesh Bank to collect information about the banking and financial sector. In this case, the governor’s help in solving the problem was hopeless but no positive result came.

The executive director of TIB referred to it as an unethical and arbitrary step in the way of ensuring the legal right of the people to know the information. Iftekharuzzaman asked the question, when the banking sector is plagued by various crises including bad debt, financial fraud and fraud and overall lack of good governance, what message does the top leadership of Bangladesh Bank want to convey to everyone through the decision to stop the free flow of information? Or what Bangladesh Bank wants to achieve through this? However, is this initiative to hide the information of their own failure to establish good governance in the banking sector that has reached the edge of the abyss? Or is it an attempt to protect the interests of those responsible for the crisis in the sector, including defaulters and fraud?

He also said that most of the information that has been published in the public interest about the financial sector scam of thousands of crores of rupees in the past few years has come from the source of free access of media workers to Bangladesh Bank. But should it be assumed that Bangladesh Bank is working to ensure the continued protection of criminals involved in irregularities in this sector such as defaulters, fraud and money laundering? Bangladesh Bank’s policies and leadership have become hostages in the hands of the gang, they have taken such reprehensible steps to hide it.

SM/KSR/GKS