(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Despite stiff competition from the digital or new media, the print media will continue to play a more critical role, says an award-winning journalist from Bangladesh.
"The print media will not die. With the advent of the digital media, the role of print has become more critical as it needs to play an important role in bridging the gap created by social media," Matiur Rahman (pictured), Magsaysay laureate (2005), said in an interview.
The Ramon Magsaysay awards in recognition of integrity and courageous services are considered Asia's Nobel prizes.
Rahman said: "The print media has to be more credible and educative to mould society in the right direction.
"It is true that the print media worldwide is facing a threat from the new media, but will continue to survive. The numbers may go down, but it will have to find new ways to sustain and grow."
Rahman said the role of trained journalists and credible print media is becoming more important as people are flooded with misinformation and disinformation by social media which needs to be verified independently for greater good, and newspapers have been doing this job for centuries. So every journalist should be trained for multi-tasking to fit in the rapidly converging media."
Rahman, the Founding Editor and Publisher of Prothom Alo (First Light), Bangladesh' most credible and leading daily in Bengali, was here for the launch of the first international edition of the weekly.
Dar Al Sharq yesterday formally launched the world's first overseas Bengali newspaper. The weekly edition will be published every Thursday. Initially it will be distributed in Qatar and Bahrain and may eventually reach to other GCC countries.
"This is a very special and proud moment for us as Prothom Alo has become the first Bengali newspaper to be published outside Bangladesh for our expatriate community in the region and around the world, but in GCC they are in significant numbers. In Qatar, the community has grown to over 200,000," Rahman said.
He established Prothom Alo's credibility and increased circulation by exposing government missteps and corruption, as well as human rights violations. The newspaper's advocacy of solutions and his editorials attracted readers. Today it reaches half a million readers, while its online portal (www.prothom-alo.com) is No. 1 Bangladeshi website, claiming to have 60 million pageview per month by over 1.6 million visitors from nearly 200 countries.
Asked about media freedom, especially with regard to a rising trend among some big companies allocating more funds for advertisement to influence news content, he said: "Although the mainstream media in Indian subcontinent enjoy good freedom, we have to be ready fighting such trends. Newspapers should have greater responsibility towards society. Making money should never be the main objective of the media. In this regard, I thank the promoters of my newspaper for the degree of freedom I enjoy as editor."
However, the crusader for media freedom did not elaborate on the self-censorship of media in the region and said, "Every country has its system and priorities. It will take some time to change."
On the Bengli-speaking expatriate community, he said Bangladesh ranked eighth in the world in terms of foreign remittances which reached $15bn. "The figure is expected to surge in future significantly with better skilled workforce from the third generation start going overseas to take up better job opportunities."
On India-Bangladesh relations, he expressed optimism and said both governments enjoy better ties. "Confidence level has improved after Dhaka acted to stop Ulfa and Bodo (separatist organisations active in Northeastern India) from using Bangladeshi lands as sanctuaries."
He hoped Teesta river water sharing and demarcation of mutually agreed international border (as both nations have housing enclaves and properties across the line of control) will be addressed soon.
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