The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Chairman of Transparency International Prof Muozaffar Ahmad has said that a qualitative change had been brought about in the polls campaigning of the political parties before the upcoming parliamentary elections.

Addressing as chief guest, he said this yesterday at a launching ceremony of a book titled "Handbook on Election Reporting"(Third Edition) published by the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD). SEHD organised the launching programme at the National Press Club in the city.

This handbook compiles tips, background information, insights and analysis on parliamentary elections in Bangladesh in 346 pages. The book is edited by Philip Gain and funded by the Asia Foundation.

Farid Hossain, Bureau Chief of AP, said this book would be useful to the journalists to be successful spokespersons of the mass people.

The book would help them to make people understand about their roles and responsibilities in the polls, he further said. Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, teacher of Dhaka University, said Bangladesh had huge number of committed voters of the political parties, who were the main obstacles in the way of democracy.

Country Representative of the Asian Foundation, Kim McQuay, said the quality of media reporting and election campaigning were improving day by day in the country.

Prof Sakhawat Ali Khan, Chairman of SEHD and former Chairman of Mass Communication and Journalism Department of Dhaka University chaired the programme. Philip Gain, General Secretary of SEHD, Hasan Shahriar, senior journalist, among others, took part in the programme.