Published : 03 Apr 2023, 08:21 PM
Updated : 04 Apr 2023, 12:26 AM
The defence of reporter Samsuzzaman Shams has questioned why he was arrested and charged in a case even though his newspaper, the Prothom Alo, issued a correction to the report in question.
A Dhaka court granted on Monday Shams bail in a digital security case until police submit their investigation report.
Dhaka Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Asaduzzaman Noor set the bond for Shams at Tk 20,000.
Lawyers Prashanta Karmaker, Aminul Gani, Ashraful Alam acted for Shams in court during the bail hearing while CMM's Public Prosecutor Abdullah Abu represented the state.
Prashanta said the Prothom Alo report was compiled using words from 12-13 flower sellers at the National Memorial and a day labourer.
“The allegations raised in the case are by no means true. The case was lodged with an aim to harass the accused. The matter could have been taken to the Press Council,” he said.
Referring to Article 27 of the Constitution, Prashanta questioned how Shams’s report was “anti-independence.”
Earlier on Mar 30, a Dhaka court sent Shams to jail after turning down his bail petition.
Shams was detained from his home in Savar early on Mar 29 by men identifying themselves as CID personnel. He faces two digital security cases – one filed by a Jubo League leader and the other by a lawyer.
The case filed by lawyer Moshiur Malek accuses the reporter of publishing and disseminating information that was “false, misleading, and defamatory to the nation”.
Lawyer Aminul on Monday said: “According to the case, he was detained from the front of BICC around dawn, but he was actually arrested at his Ashulia home.”
He also drew attention to the case being filed a long time after Shams was arrested. “A case with Tejgaon police was filed before that. But he is yet to have been shown arrested in that case.”
Section 61 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that an arrestee cannot be detained for more than 24 hours without being produced in court. The case never mentioned how and where he was kept all this time, he added.
Aminul also said the accused did not “question” the independence in his report. Referring to the state lawyer, he said: “Our friend might not have issues with rice and fish but the poor do. The news depicts the desire of the poor people. The freedom of the pen can’t be restrained.”
Lawyer Ashraful said if this was the result of a journalist’s writing, what would become of the general people.
Stressing that people might make mistakes and an amendment to the news was out, he said: “The state might lodge a case like this, not an individual.”
In response, state lawyer Abdullah Abu said the child was motivated to say what he was quoted as saying.
“Such outrageous acts are not journalism. Simply being sorry won’t help,” he said, adding that some “anti-independence powers” were behind this.
Midway into the hearing, Najibullah Hiru, legal affairs secretary of the Awami League, mentioned that Bangladesh was currently third in fisheries production in the world.
“It was before that people did not get rice to eat, but now everyone does. The Prothom Alo report contains malintent.”
On Mar 26, the newspaper used a picture of a child to promote an article online. However, a quote used in the social media photo card was by a day labourer named Zakir Hossain, not the child. The discrepancy was corrected and it was later republished. The headline of the original report was also modified.
The report came under fire and two cases under the Digital Security Act were filed over the news.
