Sheikh Hasina: “The government is running the country very well.”

By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
The Bangladesh prime minister yesterday censured those who criticise the government in television talk shows.
Sheikh Hasina alleged that the media was writing against the government without checking the facts.
“The government is running the country very well. But some people just can’t accept it,” Hasina, also the Awami League chief, said at a views exchange programme with the Kurigram unit leaders of the ruling party at her official residence Gana Bhaban.
“There are people who just can’t stand the fact that people are happy and they don’t like the democratic system. They are habituated to take benefits from the government,” Hasina said, adding: “When we are working for the poor they are venting their frustration. They show a picture of the rural people in the talk shows when the situation is different in reality in the
villages.”
Responding to the recent assaults on journalists, the ruling party chief said: “A total of 14 journalists were killed and 1,400 were injured during the term of BNP-Jamaat-led alliance
government.”
She said many journalists were crippled for life then. “Many were not allowed to file cases. They had to change their residences. But the newspapers and electronic media did not cover those incidents then.”
Saying the present government does not control the media, Hasina said: “The independence is being misused.”
“They (journalists) are writing now. They are not satisfied until they write against the government everyday. They don’t feel the need to check whether it’s true or false. They have to write.”
“I read the newspapers daily. I mark some of the news items, those are totally bogus,” she added.
She also alleged that the media was harming the country through releasing news reports without checking the facts.
Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam, presidium members Mohiudding Khan Alamgir, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, Abdul Latif, joint general secretary Mahbub-ul Alam Hanif were present at the meeting among others.