They observed that the situation would have been worse, had there not been reports on corruption in the media. They criticised the government for often blasting the media for exposing corruption in the name of tarnishing the image of the country.

It is the ruling party that is spreading corruption and harvesting the result for its own interest, which is tarnishing the image of the country, the speakers said.

The extent of corruption in our society is at an alarming level, as a result, the country has been named the most corrupt four consecutive times, the speakers said at the roundtable, organised by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) at the VIP Lounge of the Jatiya Press Club. TIB was announcing its award for investigative journalism for 2005.

Renowned journalist ABM Musa presented a keynote paper on media and corruption. Mahfuz Anam, editor-publisher of The Daily Star and a TIB trustee, moderated the roundtable.

In his keynote paper, ABM Musa said the media in many cases cannot reveal the stories and relevant information of corruption; sometimes journalists face threats or job loss while unveiling corruption of influential people of the society.

Khan Sarwar Murshid, former chairperson of TIB, stressed the need for interaction between the media and TIB for breaking the "unholy alliance of power, money and corruption".

Editor of the Bangladesh Observer Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, journalists Monjurul Ahsan Bulbul, TIB Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman, Kajal Siddiqui, Khadiza Begum, Nikhil Chatterjee, Abdur Rouf, T Ali Minto also took part in the discussion.

Selim Zahid of the Daily Samakal won the TIB Investigative Journalism Award 2005 in the print media category for his report on bottled mineral water, published in the Daily Inqilab in 2004.

Shakil Ahmed of ATN Bangla received the award in the electronic media category for his follow-up report on the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an Awami League rally, telecast live on the same channel.

The winners received prize money of Taka 50,000, certificate and crests.

A total of 44 reports--38 published in different dailies and weekly magazines and six telecast in TV channels--contested for the award.

The TV reporting category has been included for the first time in the competition this year since TIB introduced the award in 1999.

The main objective of the award programme is to encourage journalists to undertake investigative reports and thereby further enhance TIB's anti-corruption social movement.