State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat today told the Jatiya Sangsad that steps would be taken to close all unregistered online news portals.

The ministry will send to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) the total list of all online portals which are registered, under process for registration and applied for registration, asking it to stop operation of the unregistered portals and those which didn’t apply for registration at all, he said.

The state minister said this responding to a supplementary question from treasury bench member Feroz Ahmed Shawpan of Satkhira-1 during parliament session with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

“Many nonprofessional news portals have mushroomed in the country, which are engaged in malpractice and creating problems in the society by spreading misinformation,” he said, adding, “We are hurdling to deal with those issues.”

Appreciating the professional journalists to come up with the demand for closing the operation of the unregistered online news portals, the state minister said professional journalists are very much concerned over the unethical practice of so-called journalists.