Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Monday said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had mixed up OTT and social media platforms in an attempt to make it a political issue.
Hasan Mahmud made the remarks at a seminar on OTT platforms at the Secretariat regarding the BNP’s recent allegation of the government formulating what they called two “repressive” draft policies on digital and social media and OTT platforms.
The minister said: “It’s shameful to see a former
minister and the secretary general of such a big political party make these kinds of mistakes. It’s not right to make this a political issue without having proper information.“The government is formulating a policy on Over The Top (OTT) platforms upon the demands of the involved authorities and necessity. OTT is not broadcast media, nor is it news or social media platform. It is another platform of growing global entertainment media where cinema, drama and contents are released directly for audiences to watch with ease anytime from anyplace.”
The minister added: “We have seen many foreign OTT platforms invading our local market. The contents uploaded on these platforms do not go with our values and cultures which have been criticized in different national dailies.”
He said: “As everything needs to have a policy, we created a draft one on OTT after talking with the stakeholders. It has been published on the ministry's website and it will be finalized after receiving more opinion.”
Hasan said the main aim of this policy is to ensure not publishing contents that clash with the country’s values and culture, and protection of local OTT platforms from foreign invasion.
“No country allows foreign media to occupy their local market, and for that, India already has a policy for OTT platforms.
“Under the policy, government’s approval is needed to upload anything on OTT media. Which, we don’t wish to follow," said the minister.
