Lawyer claims Amanullah Kabir committed contempt

A Supreme Court lawyer has accused senior journalist Amanullah Kabir of contempt of court over his remarks at a television talk show.

Former High Court judge Munsurul Haque brought the allegation amid the hearing of a contempt rule against the joint editor of Bengali daily Prothom Alo.

According to Haque, Kabir, one of the senior editors of bdnews24.com, made offending remarks on lawyers at a talk-show aired on a private TV ‘Banglavision’ on Monday. He alleged that the remarks amounted to contempt of court

After hearing the plea, the bench of Justices Naima Haider and Zafar Ahmed said that they would look into the matter.

The High Court bench had summoned Prothom Alo Joint Editor Mizanur Rahman Khan over two published articles written by him. During the hearing over the contempt rule on Thursday, Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud made remarks about the media and journalism profession.

Four journalist bodies including, the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity issued separate statements on Saturday demanding withdrawal of Mamhud’s statement, which had been published in the Bengali dailies, ‘Samakal’ and ‘Naya Diganta’.

The following day, a contempt rule was issued against the newspapers when Mahmud drew the attention of the HC towards the news.

“We had issued a warning on Thursday. We had verbally forbidden publication of the statements, but it was not adhered. That’s why, we are issuing a contempt rule,” said the HC.

Meanwhile, several newspapers have published a joint statement on Tuesday signed by editors of 16 newspapers. The statement sought the Chief Justice’s intervention to ‘normalise the situation’.

“We have observed that some senior lawyers bad-mouthed about journalists and the media during the hearing. (They) have tried to defame the whole media industry by one-sided allegations over journalists’ integrity,” the statement read.

“We call upon (lawyers) to refrain from making such provocative and confusing statements. Moreover, we observed an attempt to create an unnecessary face-off between the media and the judiciary has been brewing, which is defamatory for both the freedom of media and the judiciary. In the wake of the situation, we seek immediate intervention of the honourable Chief Justice to normalise it,” it further said.