He came up with the remarks at a biannual general meeting and election of Development Journalist Forum of Bangladesh (DJFB) at NEC conference room-1 in the city.
"[Bangladesh’s] media was once run by NGOs but the situation has now changed. We’re being benefited by journalists’ works in various ways. So we want to allow journalists to work smoothly," he said, promising to provide necessary facilities to this end.
Mannan thanked the members of DJFB for forming a forum.
"We’ll provide a room for journalists at Planning Ministry so that you (journalists) can work easily," he said.
Dr Shamsul Alam, member (senior secretary) of General Economics Division, said 90 percent media houses are being operated by businessmen. “Now a question has been raised whether journalists are getting full facilities here or not,” he said.
Planning Secretary Md Nurul Amin said they are implementing many development projects in the country.
"We’re learning about corruption in development projects through media reports and that's really good. Otherwise we couldn’t have known about corruption," he added.
Secretary of Statistics and Information Management Department Sourendra Nath Chakraborty, Editor-in-Chief of GTV Syed Ishtiaque Reza, and Press Club President and Acting Editor of Daily Jugantor Saiful Alam also spoke, among others.
Later, the maiden election of DJFB was held.
FHM Humayun Kabir of Financial Express was elected president (unopposed) and Hamid-Uz-Zaman Mamun of Daily Jugantor vice-president (unopposed).
Arifur Rahman of Kaler Kantho was elected general secretary, Md Abdullah Al Mamun of Desh Rupantor joint secretary, Mofizul Sadik of Banglanews24.com organising secretary, Mohammad Jahidul Islam of Business Standard finance secretary, Hasibul Islam of risingbd.com office secretary, and Ripon Hossain of Amader Orthoniti publication and human resources secretary.
Three executive members – Susanta Sinha of Jamuna TV, Jahir Raihan of Dhaka Times, Abu Sayem of Alokito Bangladesh – were also elected.
AFP bureau chief Shafiqul Alam, Daily Samakal journalist Abu Hena Muhib and BIBM Public Relations officer Md Al Mamun Khan were commissioners of the election.