Journalists and media employees have staged demonstrations demanding immediate announcement of the ninth wage board and enactment of the media employee law.
They have also protested the writ filed by the Newspaper Owners' Association Bangladesh (NOAB) seeking delay in the declaration of the ninth wage board.
Sangbadik-Sramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SSKOP), a platform of journalists, workers and employees, organised the demonstration in front of the capital’s National Press Club on Sunday (Aug 18).
After the demonstration, journalists handed over a memorandum to Information Minister Hasan Mahmud at the Secretariat.
Molla Jalal, president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), presided over the demonstration while Motiur Rahman Talukder, president of Bangladesh Newspaper Employees Federation (BNEF), Alamgir Hossain Khan, president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Newspaper Press Workers (BFUNPW) and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) General Secretary Sohel Haider Chowdhury, among others, spoke at the program.
They also submitted a 14-point demand to the authorities concerned in this regard.
Their demands include the immediate declaration of ninth wage board; enactment of media employee law in an upcoming parliamentary session, declaration of separate wage board for television journalists and employees and others.
Earlier on Aug 6, the High Court issued a status quo for two months on the publication of the gazette notification of the ninth wage board.
In line with the court order, the government cannot publish the gazette notification for implementing the recommendations of the ninth wage board set for journalists.
The vacation bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice Mohammad Ali passed the order, following a writ petition filed by the Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (Noab) challenging the legality of the ninth wage board.