Pressure on bdnews24.com ‘naked interference’ with media freedom: CUJ

The Chattogram Union of Journalists or CUJ has expressed concern over the threats of cases against bdnews24.com in legal notices demanding removal of old reports.

Chattogram Bureaubdnews24.com
Published : 19 Feb 2021, 01:21 PM
Updated : 19 Feb 2021, 01:21 PM

CUJ President Mohammad Ali and General Secretary M Shamsul Islam in a statement on Friday described the incident as a “naked interference” with the freedom of media.

“There is a due process of correcting errors, if there is any, in news published or aired by the media, but repeated legal notices and threats of cases by a certain quarter to take down several reports from bdnews24.com are unacceptable,” the statement said.

CUJ demanded that the influential quarters refrain from creating such “unethical pressure”. “Otherwise the media workers in Bangladesh will stand up against this type of evil attempts for the sake of their existence,” the union said.

Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, spoke extensively at a press conference on Wednesday on “bizarre” attempts to muffle journalism by the influential people.

bdnews24.com said it had published news on court proceedings and orders in cases filed against valiant freedom fighter HBM Iqbal, chairman of Premier Group and a former MP, and members of his family in the past one and a half decades as had other mainstream media.

bdnews24.com also covered the news of acquittal of Iqbal and his family members of the charges.

But it received 36 legal notices from 24 districts as of Tuesday. The language, statements and demands in the notices, sent under different names, are identical.

The main point of the legal notices is that the reports on Iqbal and his family should be removed as all of them have been acquitted in the cases—a demand that bdnews24.com finds “illogical”, “unreasonable” and “absurd”.

“They claim they are now facing problems with their business endeavours because the reports are still on the internet. As such, they want us to take down the old reports,” Khalidi said.

bdnews24.com said at the press conference that the senders are threatening to file defamation cases seeking tens of billions of takas in compensation in the legal notices. The numbers, if added up, amount to Tk 500 billion.

One of the senders, all of whom identify themselves as friends or well-wishers of Iqbal, threatened bdnews24.com with “adverse consequences”.

bdnews24.com questioned the lawfulness of threatening “adverse consequences” through legal notices.

Khalidi said bdnews24.com can correct factual errors, if any, but it will not remove reports bowing down to “undue” pressure.

“The reports are not based on bdnews24.com’s own investigation, but they objectively reflect the court proceedings and orders. It naturally begs the question: what logical reason is there for the news publisher to remove these reports?" he said.

If people demand the removal of reports on cases against them from a long time ago after being acquitted, it will have a “profound” impact on the media at all levels in Bangladesh, he added.