Dhaka: Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Iqbal Mahmood on Sunday urged journalists to help the national anti-graft agency fight corruption through their investigative reports.

He came up with the call while addressing a seminar, titled 'Corruption and Investigation Journalism', at Bangladesh Press Council auditorium in the capital.

The ACC chief said the Commission receives huge graft allegations each month, but it cannot conduct probes into all the allegations for lack of proper evidence.

Besides, he said, many of the allegations do not fall under ACC's jurisdiction.

"So, investigative journalism can play a vital role in preventing corruption. But such reports must be objective and informative. The ACC cannot take any legal action against any graft suspect considering a report written based on perception," he said.

Observing that writing and publishing investigative reports is a risky job for journalists, Mahmood said all should remember that everybody's life in third world countries is at risk at all levels in one way or the other.

Mentioning that there is no scope to hide information these days in the era of globalisation and ICT, he said, "Somehow information comes out."

Noting that corrupt people are always scared of journalists, the ACC chairman said they are morally weak. "So, the more the journalists will be morally high the more the corrupt people will get demoralised."

Stressing the importance of ensuring governance in all institutions, including the media, he said it is quite impossible to do that without developing institutional systems.

Chaired by Bangladesh Press Council chairman Justice Md Mamtaz Uddin Ahmed, the seminar was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) president Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul and Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta.