'Unethical and arbitrary': TIB calls on cenbank to immediately withdraw entry restriction against journalists

*Expressing deep concern over the imposition of restrictions on the access of journalists to the Bangladesh Bank building,  the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called on the banking regulator to withdraw the decision.* In a statement on Friday (26 April), the organisation called for immediate withdrawal of such a decision which puts "unprecedented obstacles in the way of the media professionals' responsibility in disclosing banking and financial sector information for the public interest". "According to the media reports, journalists were facing obstacles for almost more than a month in accessing the Bangladesh Bank 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," reads the statement. Terming the central bank's move as an "unethical and arbitrary" barrier in the way of ensuring the legal right of the people to know information, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, "What message does the top leadership of 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 Zaman, adding, "Should we assume that 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 taking such reprehensible steps to hide the fact that Bangladesh Bank's policies and leadership have become hostages in the hands of those circles?"
Published on: 2024-04-26 16:17:36.126699 +0200 CEST