Blocked entry of journalists to Bangladesh Bank: TIB concerned

Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has expressed concern over the imposition of restrictions on journalists’ access to the financial sector regulatory body and Bangladesh Bank, the last resort of public funds. The concern was expressed in a statement sent to the media on Friday (April 26).

The organization mentioned such a move by the central bank as a major obstacle in the way of the professional responsibility of the media to publish information about the banking and financial sector in the public interest and called for its immediate withdrawal.

According to reports published in the media, the media and journalists were facing obstacles for more than a month in accessing the Bangladesh Bank to gather information on the banking and financial sector. In this case, the journalists asked the help of the governor to solve the problem. This also did not yield any positive results.

The executive director of TIB referred to such a decision as an unethical and arbitrary step in the way of ensuring the legitimate right of the people to know the information. Iftekharuzzaman said, ‘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 send 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 who are responsible for the crisis in this sector, including defaulters and frauds.’

In the past few years, most of the information about the financial sector scams of thousands of crores of rupees has been published in the public interest, most of them have come because of the free access of media workers to Bangladesh Bank, reminding Dr. Zaman said, ‘But should we assume that Bangladesh Bank is working to ensure the continued protection of criminals involved in irregularities in this sector such as debt defaulters, fraud and money laundering? Is this reprehensible step to hide the fact that Bangladesh Bank’s policies and leadership have become hostages in the hands of the gang?’

The TIB believes that when questions of public confidence in the banking sector are swirling, or when the central bank itself is visibly confused about bank mergers in the name of protecting the interests of bank customers, the siege of secrecy can pose a greater danger. TIB is expressing concern that it is clear that Bangladesh Bank is unwilling to consider the matter of returning the opportunity of unhindered information gathering to the journalists by avoiding the main issue through bureaucratic red tape in the name of training the media and newsmen on the sensitivity of information in the banking sector when the media workers are helpless and seek the help of the governor to solve the problem.

It is not only an expression of arbitrariness, but also an indicator of colonial mentality, says the Executive Director of TIB, ‘Instead of solving the problem, the governor is talking about introducing a pass-based system, offering training, whatever else, the professional responsibility of media workers, especially investigative reporting. Not only is there an insurmountable ban on the collection of information, but as a result, any level official of Bangladesh Bank will want to refrain from giving interviews to journalists. It goes without saying that if the relevant journalist publishes the report after the meeting, the specific official will face harassment in the name of administrative accountability. In other words, the access to information will be practically stopped, the people will be deprived of the right to know what is happening in the banking sector, why and who are benefiting from the loss of people’s money, which cannot be the work of a sane person.

Dr. Iftekharuzzaman also said that the Bangladesh Bank authorities should remember that they are supposed to play the role of protecting the public interest, not the responsible parties for the crisis in the banking sector.

Taking into consideration the overall situation, TIB expects that Bangladesh Bank will soon announce the withdrawal of the ban to ensure unhindered access to journalists and facilitate the way of free disclosure of information.