“Dr. Javed Khan (Director, Asia Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development), Sir, you raised a very important issue. It was a very good point, a very good remark: Where are the Media-Owners?
“In my country, Sir, unfortunately the media owners seem to forget that they own media. They act like business owners. Media is just another business for them. In fact, many of them own several other businesses.
“As such, they have different priorities, different interests. A group of radicals can come to their office, and force them to publish something or not to publish something. And, they so very easily give in to such demands. As the direct result of such attitude, thanks to them, to these media owners, the number of radicals in my country has increased. Just a decade back, or less than that, they were not more than 7-8%. Now, they have doubled, more than 17%.
“Yes, in this very important conference, I see no media owner of my country. This is very unfortunate. Thank you, Sir.”