News agencies play an important role in promoting journalism in the country. The government organisations, which have institutional linkage with the news media, are Bangladesh Press Council, Press Institute of Bangladesh, Department of Films and Publications, Press Information Department, and External Publicity Wing. Among these, the Department of Films and Publications is engaged in bringing out government publications, registration of periodicals, distribution of government advertisements, auditing of newspaper circulation and allocation of newsprint. The Press Information Department is entrusted with the task of press coverage of governmental activities.
The newspaper industry operates under relevant Articles of the country's Constitution and the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Official Secrets Act, the Special Powers Act, the Printing Press and Publications (Declaration and Registration) Act, the Telegraph Act, the Post Office Act, the Foreign Relations Act, and the Copyright Ordinance.
Although there are no reliable data on the circulation of newspapers and periodicals, the average circulation of the daily newspapers and periodicals in 1997 was estimated at 2,237,960 and 987,810 respectively. According to official government figures, a total of 286 dailies and 1,522 periodicals were published in 1997-98. More than 90 percent of these were in Bengali language.
Although over 1,800 dailies and periodicals are published in the country, only about 15% of the population read a newspaper/periodical once a week. The readership in the urban areas is comparatively higher at about 32%, while the rate in the rural areas, especially among rural women, is very low - only about 2%. According to a study conducted by the Press Institute of Bangladesh in 1994, the findings of which were released in 1998, only 12% of the readership consider newspapers to be credible and about 55% believe that there is a freedom of expression. The factors include government intervention, pre-censorship, political pressure, obstacles put forward by different quarters, lack of neutral outlook and dependence of newspapers on government advertisements. [Golam Rahman and Helal Uddin Ahmed]
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