Media reform commission recommends ‘one media, one house’

The Media Reform Commission has recommended that no single company, group, individual, family, or entrepreneur should own multiple media outlets.

The commission recommended a bar on cross-ownership (owner of a TV station may not be allowed to own a newspaper) and ownership of multiple outlets of the same nature (same owner of more than one news outlets in the same platform in the same language) to safeguard the commercial viability of the sector, which it terms ‘one media, one house’, reports The Daily Star. 

In its report, the commission proposed a series of reforms under 21 key points and sub-clauses.

The commission‍‍`s chairman, Kamal Ahmed, along with other members, submitted the report to Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the state guest house Jamuna today.

The commission has also recommended bringing media outlets under the capital market.

As part of this, it suggested setting a deadline for medium and large media companies to go public by offering shares and getting listed on the stock exchange.

Among other recommendations, the commission stated that no journalist should be hired—whether on a temporary, permanent, or contractual basis—without an appointment letter, a photo ID, and a salary.

It also proposed that the probation period should not exceed one year.

Additionally, the commission recommended that the starting basic salary for permanently employed journalists should be equivalent to that of a first-class government gazetted officer.