Dhaka/

Journalists held a protest rally in Dhaka for 5-point demands including amendment of objectionable clauses of Digital Security Act, implementation of 9th Wage Board in the media. The leaders of the organization have warned of stricter programs if the demands are not met.

These demands were made in the protest rally organized by the Dhaka Journalists Union in front of the National Press Club on Saturday.

The demands are to take action if the journalists are not paid regularly, to stop the attack-cases on journalists, to cancel the decision to reduce the accreditation card of professional journalists in the secretariat and to make the weekly holiday of two days for the media.

In the rally, former president of BFUJ-Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul said that the ninth wage board is not implemented anywhere else in the country except for buses. How can there be two such laws in one country! Another is our right to work. Why is the accreditation card being reduced? Next is the Digital Security Act. By doing this, journalists are being harassed through the application and misuse of the law. When this law was passed four years ago, the law minister said that if a case is filed in the name of journalists, I will stand as a lawyer myself. Where is the law minister today? He also said that today journalists are going backwards in the place of rights, safety and dignity.

DUJ president Sohail Haider Chowdhury presided over the rally and BFUJ President Omar Farooq, Secretary General Deep Azad, Dhaka Reporters Unity President Nazrul Islam Mithu, Secretariat Reporters Forum President Tapan Kumar Biswas and DUJ General Secretary Aktar Hossain, Vice President Manik Lal Ghosh, Office Secretary also addressed the rally. Aman Ullah Aman, Ashraful Islam, Mizanur Rahman etc. The rally was conducted by DUZ organizing secretary A. Jihadur Rahman Jihad.