Dr. Asif Nazrul, the Law Adviser to the interim government, expressed frustration over the quality of journalism by The Daily Star and Prothom Alo. He alleged that both newspapers had engaged in “partisan” reporting.
The Law Adviser made these remarks on Thursday (June 26) while speaking at an event held at the National Press Club. He cited two examples regarding the matter.
Asif Nazrul said, “Thirteen or fourteen years ago, when a lecturer from the law department made extremely offensive comments against Begum Khaleda Zia, The Daily Star portrayed him as a hero and even referred to him as a ‘professor’ instead of a ‘lecturer’ in their report. I can provide clear evidence because it involved someone from my department. He was referred to as ‘professor’ every day. The report was published on the front page. Later, when he was eventually expelled from Dhaka University, they didn’t report on that.”
The Law Adviser added that the lecturer had such a disturbed state of mind that he took his own life a few years ago.
He further said, “I myself write in Prothom Alo. They once described Zafrullah Chowdhury as being pro-BNP. So I asked Sohrab Bhai (Sohrab Hasan), ‘If Zafrullah Chowdhury is labeled pro-BNP, then why don’t you label people like Anisuzzaman or Muhammad Zafar Iqbal as pro-Awami League?’
He also remarked, “Journalism has a code of conduct. But if this is the standard, then how can people have confidence(in journalism)?”
bd-pratidin/Rafid
