Sakhawat Sajib, editor of DhakaWatch, has been elected joint general secretary of the Online Newsportal Association Bangladesh (ONAB), an organisation representing online media outlets registered with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The announcement was made at ONAB’s biennial general meeting held at the National Press Club on Saturday (October 3). The previous ad hoc committee was dissolved at the meeting, and a new full-fledged executive committee was announced.

Mostafa Kamal Majumder was elected president of the new committee, while Syed Nurul Huda Rono was elected general secretary.

Other office-bearers include Alimuzzaman Harun as senior vice-president, Latiful Bari Hamim as vice-president, Ashraful Kabir Asif as senior joint general secretary, Sakhawat Sajib as joint general secretary and Ayon Ahmed as treasurer.

Shaheen Chowdhury, Towhidul Islam Mintu, Delwar Hossain, Rafiqul Basar, Mahbuba Islam Kakoli and Syed Arifuzzaman were elected executive members.

The general meeting was chaired by ONAB convener Mostafa Kamal Majumder and moderated by member secretary Shaheen Chowdhury. At the beginning of the meeting, participants observed a one-minute silence in memory of ONAB member and bdnews24.com editor Toufiq Imroz Khalidi, who recently passed away.

At the meeting, members called for the cancellation of the existing requirement for online news portals to renew their registration every year and demanded that registered online media outlets be brought under the government advertising system.

The meeting also proposed arranging discussions with the Minister, State Minister, adviser and secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to expedite the implementation of these demands.

Participants also stressed the importance of maintaining objectivity in online media, making ONAB’s activities more effective and taking practical measures to address various challenges faced by registered online news outlets.