First of all, greetings to everyone connected with Channel i Online. This online news portal, one of the country's leading ones, has completed four years in the blink of an eye. Channel i Online has managed to stay close to the people. It has practised fearless journalism, and I would say it has set several new precedents in text journalism.

Take, for example, the 'Editorial' section. We were the first to take up such an initiative online, in which members of the editorial board write. No political party, side or opinion influences us, because we belong to the people. We are the mass media. We work for journalism itself. We will bring out the truth; that is our only mission. Bangladesh is the source of all our strength.

How many ways a news story can be broken down and rebuilt is also a focus of ours. Our sports, entertainment, crime, politics and international sections in particular have regular readers. Many people also write in the opinion section, and we are getting a good response there too. We are doing quite well on Facebook, and with entertainment, news and multimedia on YouTube.

If I talk about multimedia or digital journalism, we are doing well. But we want to do even better. Very soon we are expanding our digital operation, where entertainment and news will work together. You may be glad to know that among Bangladesh's TV channels, Channel i now has the largest number of subscribers on an entertainment YouTube platform. That is a matter of great joy and pride.

Those who used to write for Channel i Online now take photos and shoot video regularly as well as writing, and appear on camera themselves to brief viewers in a timely video on the day's most talked-about news. So I, Sagar, or all of us, say that our digital goal is a very big one, in which entertainment, sports and news will get top priority. We are hoping for coordination. Business is also a big resource here; otherwise we will not be able to achieve so many visions.

We want to be live on Facebook where we cannot be live on TV. We can certainly do this with a backpack. We want to take that live video quickly to our monetised YouTube platform. In future we also want to move to OTT and VOD platforms.

There is one thing I particularly want to say. Journalism today does not mean only a TV, radio or online text report. A journalist has to be multidimensional. For the report he makes for TV, he will give a longer version online. And he will take photos and shoot video at any scene, because pictures are very effective. In the same way, the need to go live on Facebook is now much greater.

What I mean is that TV, online and radio journalists cannot always be in the same place. If something important happens where someone happens to be, it must be covered. That is where the emphasis must lie. Then the question will be where the story actually fits. In this way online will share with TV, and TV with online. Assistant editors at the TV and online ends will do this coordination, so that a journalist knows specifically how much of the work is his.

Social avenues are very useful for reaching many more people quickly. If news is for the people, we must find the fastest ways of getting it to them and move forward. The journalist who went out on a report will give an interview on his reporting issue when he returns to the office. Online will cover that on Facebook Live. The same reporter will write an analysis of the whole story. That is how a report becomes complete from every side.

I do not want to call this modern journalism. I want to say that this is, essentially, journalism, as a whole. And unless multimedia journalists are kept well equipped, covering events from the scene becomes very difficult. Every kind of facility must be ensured for them.

Finally, I want to say that this online portal has been able to deliver accurate news in the shortest time while following the ethics of news. Having come this far with the slogan 'Panch-e 5', our wish and dream will be to go further still. Warm greetings to everyone once again. Panch-e 5!

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.