The minister came up with the remarks while talking to reporters at the secretariat.
The ministry sent a list of online news portals to the investigation agencies which had applied for registration and published a list of 34 online news portals which secured clearance from the investigation agencies, the minister said.
The list of online versions of newspapers will also be published later, he said.
Names of many established and popular online news portals did not appear in the published list, Mahmud said adding that they are repeatedly asking the investigation agencies to submit the report shortly.
“All the news portals will be able to get registered if those get positive report from the investigation agencies,” he said.
Talking about the social media service providers like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Mahmud stated that an inter-ministerial body has been formed to fix guidelines about their operation in the country and bring them under government tax net.