16 NGOs press 10-point demand to protect minorities during polls

Sixteen non-governmental development organizations, institutions, and civic platforms operating in Bangladesh have issued a 10-point demand to prevent rumors and misinformation and to protect disadvantaged, minority, and gender-diverse communities in the election period.

The announcement was made in a press release on Sunday after the joint network meeting of the institutions.

Earlier, the Institute for Environment and Development (IED) held a two-day network meeting with the support of the Asia Foundation at the YWCA auditorium in the capital.

In the first part of the network meeting, Istihak Raihan, a faculty member in the Department of Economics of Jahangirnagar University, presented the main article titled “Impact of Misinformation in the Democratic Process of Bangladesh.”

In the second part, the Director of the Center for Critical and Qualitative Studies of ULAB, Deen Mohammad Sumon Rahman, and the members of the Fact Watch team discussed various processes of news verification and cyber security.

On the second day, MRDI Executive Director Hasibur Rahman and Senior Program Officer Syed Samiul Basher discussed advocacy strategies in the first phase jointly.

In the second part, the Senior Reporter of Daily Ittefaq, Amir Mohammad, discussed the importance of network development to prevent disinformation.

The institutions participating in the joint declaration are Environment and Development (IED), Center for Critical and Qualitative Studies (CQS), Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), Manab Kallyan Parishad (MKP) (Thakurgaon), Association for Social Development of Bangladesh (ASDB), IDEA (Sylhet), Engineering and Research Associates Limited (ERA) (Sunamganj), Prerona (Satkhira), PAVE (Bogura), SHIELD (Savar), Harijan Yuva Kalyan Samity (Sherpur), Abalamban (Gaibandha), Disinformation Prevention Forum (DPF), Jatiya Adivasi Parishad (JAP), FTWT (Kishorganj) and Janaudyog.