Monday | 7 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 7 October 2024 | Epaper

A journalist’s detention and few critical questions

Published : Friday, 31 March, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 549
Syed Badiuzzaman
A journalist has just been arrested in Bangladesh. His name is Shamsuzzaman; he is the Savar correspondent of Bangladesh's most popular Bengali Daily "Prothom Alo" which stands for the "First Light" in English. He was detained by plainclothes policemen under the controversial Digital Security Act or DSA from his residence in the wee hours of last Wednesday.

This is now the hot news in Bangladesh for a variety of reasons and I got this news incidentally on the day I write my weekly column which appears every Friday in the Daily Observer of Bangladesh. So, instead of choosing another topic for my this week's column, I rather decided to write on this multidimensional incident as it has several important aspects to discuss about.

Prothom Alo's Savar correspondent wrote a report highlighting working people's extreme struggle if not poverty for their survival nowadays in Bangladesh. And he apparently quoted a day labourer on his plight in this regard: "I don't have enough rice to eat. So, what will I do with this independence? I sweat each time I go to market. We need the freedom of eating fish, meat and rice."

And the ace Bengali daily of Bangladesh, which is expected by everybody to pursue high-quality and responsible journalism, prominently published this news in its digital edition on the day Bangladesh celebrated its 52nd anniversary of independence. But there was a mix-up. Instead of publishing the picture of the day labourer the newspaper quoted in the news, they published the image of a child. And that created a lot of controversies.

Even though the daily corrected their mistake fairly quickly, an individual already sued the publication on the basis of which a group of plain clothes policemen went to the journalist's Savar home in the early hours of Wednesday and arrested him from there. He was also blindfolded as some news reports suggested. While the news is shocking to many especially those belonging to the journalist community and human rights groups, it has several significant perspectives to take a look at.

First of all, even if we give Prothom Alo newspaper the benefit of doubt that it honestly made a mistake by publishing a child's image in place of the picture of the day labourer they quoted in the report, was the report really written in a fair, balanced and objective manner reflecting the true economic conditions of the country?  Is the current economic condition so bad in Bangladesh so that the labour-class people cannot eat rice, fish and meat at all?

The reporter may have forgotten to ask this question himself while working on this report but the editor should not have done so while editing his piece. As a famous newspaper editor in the American city of Dallas once said: "The editor is the conscience of the writer and the newspaper. He challenges facts and writing and upholds the newspaper's standards." Had the Prothom Alo journalist wanted to write a fair and objective report, he needed to do more work on it.

He should have interviewed few more labourers in few more different places in the capital and also other areas in the country. If he would do that, he would certainly find some labourers who are much better off nowadays compared to their condition two or five years back. And then he needed to quote them as well in his report to balance it. But he wrote a one-sided piece abandoning the practice of fair reporting. And the editor too overlooked the shortcomings in his report.
The facts in the Prothom Alo report can certainly be challenged on the basis of the existing economic condition in the country. The nation's principal economic indicators give altogether a different picture. Despite the current global economic slowdown, Bangladesh's GDP is expected to grow by 6.0 percent in fiscal 2022-2023. Also, despite the COVID-19 impact on the world economy, the per capita income in Bangladesh has now increased to $2,824 indicating an improvement in the national economy.

So, the one-sided and unbalanced report lacking journalistic objectivity wasn't liked by the government and perhaps many other people for obvious reasons. However, the way journalist Shamsuzzaman was arrested in the wee hours of Wednesday by plainclothes policemen from his residence went over the top. He was not a hardened criminal who repeatedly broke law of the country, nor a serious offender who was a fugitive after committing rape and murder.

He was just a journalist. But even though a journalist's job is not to please any government or a quarter or a special group of people, he or she is expected to write always a fair, balanced and objective report upholding journalistic integrity and acceptable standards. A good journalist will never use only one-sided quotes from one or more individuals on any issue in his or her report. For fair reporting it must be balanced by counter quotes with counter versions from other people.

But again the way he was arrested the other night from his Savar home and then blindfolded is shocking, intimidating and disappointing especially for the journalist community. After all, Bangladesh is a democratic country and democracy was established after many years of people's struggle. So, everything including enforcement of law must take place here openly, transparently and without creating any fear in the public mind. Bangladesh is not a police state.

Prothom Alo's Shamsuzzaman was detained only because his report wasn't appreciated apparently by the government and some pro-government people who thought that his report had tarnished the image of the country after being circulated on social media. In my view, that was their overreaction. The report was certainly biased, unbalanced and not objective but it could not do any harm to the country. The economic condition of Bangladesh is certainly not as bad as the journalist tried to portray in his report quoting a day labourer.

Instead of arresting Shamsuzzaman, the government should have taken softer, democratic and traditional steps. For examples, the relevant ministry or the government agency could have contradicted the report or sent a response to it through the Press Information Department of Bangladesh or PID. As a second option, the government could have filed a complaint with Bangladesh Press Council, a quasi-judicial institution, which regulates the press. The reporter should not have been detained for such a report even though it was not objective.

The draconian Digital Security Act has made it a lot easier for anybody to take actions against any journalists even though such actions are unwarranted and threatening press freedom in Bangladesh. During the Ayub/Yahiya regimes in what was then East Pakistan, there was always a climate of fear under which journalists worked. That fear was gone after Bangladesh became independent. But ironically the same fear came back with the introduction of Digital Security Act by the government of Awami League, the party that once fought vigorously for press freedom.

In the latest instance, the Digital Security Act has been abused one more time. The law should be rescinded altogether and now in the interest of protecting press freedom and democracy in Bangladesh. And the reporters should do fair and balanced reporting while the editors should perform their duty judiciously challenging facts and writing and thus upholding journalistic integrity.

The writer is a Toronto-based journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist


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