Dhaka: State Minister for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Junaid Ahmed Palak on Wednesday said he will recommend the Law Ministry to make an amendment to section 57 of the ICT (Amendment) Act 2013 in a bid to stop harassment on journalists.

He said this while addressing a seminar, titled ‘Evolution of Information Technology, New media and the Mass Media’, at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU), reports UNB.

The seminar was organized by the DRU.

The State Minister said there must be laws to control various crimes including militancy based on the use of information technology, but caution should be taken to ensure that journalists are not harassed by the use of these laws.

He also urged journalists to be more cautious while making news from any social media sources.

‘Spreading fake and forged information can be considered as conspiracy, not as news,’ he noted.

About the establishment of a local office of social networking site Facebook in the country, he said, ‘We are pressurising Facebook to build an office in Bangladesh. We can have proper monitoring if Facebook has an office in Bangladesh.’

Chaired by DRU president Jamal Uddin, the seminar was also addressed by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) president Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul.