Why was Culture Advisor Farooki’s press conference suspended? Bangla Academy explains

Bangla Academy has provided an explanation on why the Ministry of Cultural Affairs’ press conference regarding the reforms to the institution was suspended.

The public relations division of the institution announced in a statement on Saturday night that those responsible for contacting journalists for the event failed to do so.

The press conference was called by Cultural Affairs Advisor Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. It was scheduled to be held at 2pm on Saturday at the Shaheed Munier Choudhury Conference Room of the Bangla Academy.

But only five journalists showed up at the scheduled time. They waited for other journalists for another hour and a half. As no one else showed up, Bangla Academy Director General Mohammad Azam postponed the event.

News outlets published reports with pictures of the almost-empty conference room, which kicked off heated discussions on Facebook.

Later in the night, the Bangla Academy issued a press release saying: "We have come across some media reports regarding the postponement of the press conference organised by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs.

"It was learnt that, just before today's press conference, the concerned department responsible for communicating with journalists did not contact the journalists on the culture beat."

Explaining the postponement of the press conference, Bangla Academy said: "Since today's press conference was originally organised for the journalists of the culture beat, we immediately apologised and decided to hold it at a convenient time later."

The postponed press conference will be held “as soon as possible after taking appropriate measures”, according to Bangla Academy.

This is the second time that the press conference on Bangla Academy reforms has been postponed. The briefing was initially scheduled to be held at 2pm on Thursday.

However, the Bangla Academy's public relations division then announced the event was postponed on that day, citing “unavoidable” reasons. Later, the press conference was scheduled for 2pm on Saturday.

Officials from the ministry and Bangla Academy waited for some time on Saturday for journalists to arrive. After noting the lack of media personnel, they informed the advisor's office.

At 2:30pm, the Bangla Academy director general told five journalists that the press conference would start at 3pm.

That time passed. DG Azam then came a half hour later and announced that the press conference was postponed.