Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, Sept-01,

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Wednesday warned that stringent measures will be taken against unregistered online news portals soon.

“Online portals are being launched every now and then by anyone and everyone which has become a matter of great headache for all concerned,” he said.

“We have recognised the authentic ones and some have been shut down,” he said adding that registration process is still going on.

“After registering a few more, we will start taking actions against the unregistered ones,” the minister said.

He said that the same procedure will be followed for IPTVs.

He added that no IPTVs around the world are allowed to publish news.

“Even the personnel of registered IPTVs won’t be able to carry press cards like reporters,” he said.

The minister came up with this information while speaking at an event of Bangladesh Crime Reporters Association on Wednesday.

A portal of the organisation, crabnewsbd.com was launched at the event,

Earlier on Aug 2, Hasan said approvals will be given to some Internet Protocol Televisions (IPTV) within a month.

“We did not give any permission to any IPTV yet. We have asked the authorities concerned to apply for registration and some 600 applications have been submitted. We will give approval of some IPTV within this month after scrutiny,” he said.

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