AL govt did never engage lobbyist: Shahriar
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Tuesday said the Awami League government did never engage any lobbyist in its last three tenures but engaged a company purely on the media front in 2015 to help the world know Bangladesh based on facts and counter propaganda against the country and its people.
"We want to make it clear the Awami League government in its last three tenures didn't engage any lobbyists. What we did is purely media-related print-media targeted," said the state minister.
He talked to a small group of reporters as some of the journalists approached him to know more about his statement he made in Parliament on Monday.
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The state minister said the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) spent at least US$ 3.75 million on lobbyists and shared relevant documents with the media which are also available in the public domain.
Shahriar mentioned fact-based stories on women empowerment, climate change, poverty alleviation and Rohingya crisis that appeared in the international mainstream media in the last four five years.
The state minister said Bangladesh also countered with facts when there is any negative perception in the global media and when someone writes something negative about Bangladesh and its people deliberately.
"We engaged the PR company as in most cases rejoinders aren't published with due importance which is a common practice at home and abroad," he said, adding that it is not a lobbyist firm.
Shahriar said the government will do only those things which are "judiciously correct" and acceptable to the people of the country.
