The past week has been crawling with media
gimmicks by the Awami League, topping which are these two:
1. PM Sheikh Hasina cooking for her son on his birthday. This is being repeatedly shown as a
testament to her motherly qualities in a bid to woo potential voters by
portraying her as a loving mother and a soft hearted personality. I shall let
you ask the questions about Megh, the orphan of the murdered journalists Sagor-Runi.
2. PM Sheikh Hasina hugs freedom fighter Roma Chowdhury in an extremely emotional manner. One
might forget to ask where Hasina’s love was all these years and why it suddenly
had to manifest itself now that Awami League has lost in 4 city corporation
elections.
One such gimmick went too far as Shazib Wajed Joy,
the son of PM Hasina was allowed to speak in front of a full house. Bumbling
with self confidence and starved for attention, Sheikh Mujib junior made a
startling statement
saying,” I
have information that the Awami League will return to power. The propagandas
being run by the BNP must be tackled”. The statement has resulted in a furor
and lead to speculations of a conspiracy in the upcoming polls, a hard wired
conception the Awami League has had little success in debunking anyway.
Power
squabble turned PR stunt:
However, that was not all. Earlier this week,
Awami League strived to show its love for the freedom of the press as the state
machinery orchestrated the arrest of one lawmaker for ‘serious offences’
against the said freedom.
The arrest of Golam Maula Rony, a lawmaker of the
ruling Awami League, is a manifestation of
the government’s respect for the country’s mass media, said a grinning information
minister Hasanul Haq Inu on Thursday the 25th of July.
“The arrest of Rony, who is in the dock of the
court, has demonstrated the government’s respect for the mass media. I hope
that all of you (the media) will come forward to establish the rule of law in
the country,” he added.
Earlier, news accounts
reported that Golam Maula Rony, a member of the ruling Awami League, and
several unnamed individuals present at the politician's office in Dhaka
allegedly beat ImtiazMomin Sony, a reporter for Independent TV, a private news
channel, and cameraman MohsinMukul. The reports said that
the journalists had visited Rony's office seeking comment for a story they were
covering for the station's investigative show, "Talash," on
allegations of bribery against the politician.
Sony told journalists that the politician "became
agitated" during the interview and began to punch and kick him and Mukul.
The extent of the injuries suffered was not immediately clear. Their camera and
microphone were also damaged in the attack. The channel filed a police complaint against the
politician the same day. Ronyhad secured
bail in the case on July 21, which was overturned on the 25th.
Rony had claimed that Independent
TV co-owner Salman F Rahman put the 'Talash' team after him following his
remarks on the share market scam. The MP also lodged a complaint on his
official letterhead with the Shahbagh police on Saturday night, accusing Rahman
of extortion, blackmailing,
attempt-to-murder, and abduction.
The incident could have just faded as another instance of
internal power squabbling within the Awami League. However, the AL bigwigs saw
it as a chance to turn something ugly to their advantage by making one the
scapegoat. In this aspect, the choice between Rony and Salman F Rahman was not
a difficult one. Rony was a first time MP, young, hot headed and controversial
in his loyalty to the party. Salman F Rahman, although much hated in social
circles, was a financier, a seasoned veteran and a much more valuable asset.Rony
was dispensable. So viola! Rony was painted as the big bad guilty crook.
Debunking the Awami League’s love for the media:
Now
back to the comments of the government. The Information
minister said that the arrest of MP Golam Maula Rony has proved government's
allegiance to the journalist community. Says who? I hope this recent analysis of Hasanul
Haque Inu, seemingly savior of media and freedom of
expression, will help.
So how true is this statement?
Let us go to the not so long ago published
Odhikar Human Rights
Report of 2012:
The year 2012 was a bad year for journalists. In
2012 five journalists were killed.In 2011 none were killed, in 2010 four
journalists were killed and in 2009 three journalists were killed. The
journalists and the media continue to be victims of attacks, physical assault,
threats and intimidation from different powerful quarters, specially the
government and the ruling party leaders and activists. From January to December
2012, according to Odhikar’s documented statistics, apart from the five
journalists killed, 161 journalists have been injured, 63 have been threatened,
10 have been attacked and 50 have been assaulted and twojournalists were
tortured by RAB and the Detective Branch (DB) of police.
1. On February 11, 2012, Sagar Sarwar, News Editor
of the private channel Maasranga TV and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter
of private television channel ATN Bangla, were killed at their rented flat at
West Rajabazar in Dhaka. Justice still eludes their only remaining child, Megh.
2. On May 10, 2012, Tuhin Sanzid, a senior reporter
of the daily ‘Bhorer Dak’, was allegedly picked up by RAB and tortured, for
reporting on the disappearance of Bangladesh Nationalist Party organising
secretary M Ilias Ali and on extrajudicial killings.
3. On May 14, 2012, a group of 10-12 alleged
criminals led by Aminul Islam, nephew of the State Minister for Home Affairs,
Advocate Shamsul Huq Tuku, attacked Abdullah Al Mamun, Regional Correspondent
of the daily ‘Kaler Kantho’ at Bera Bazaar under Pabna district for publishing
a report on corruption, implicating the Minister. Mamun was admitted to Pabna
General Hospital in a critical condition.
4. On July 13, 2012, Mostafizur Rahman Sumon, Crime
Reporter of the online news agency ‘JustNews’, was picked up and allegedly
tortured by the Detective Branch (DB) of police and detained for two days in
the DB Office.
And let us not forget the incident of ruling
Awami League lawmaker Kamal Ahmed Majumder assaulting
a female television journalist at Monipur High School and College at Mirpur in
the capital on January 3, 2012.
The incident happened when Aparna Singha, staff
reporter of Rtv, along with cameraman Syed Haider and another reporter Shahin
Parvez went to the school at around 11:30am to seek Kamal's comment on the
school authority's decision to charge admission fees way beyond the amount
fixed by the government since Kamal, elected from Dhaka-15 (Kafrul-Ibrahimpur),
was also president of the school managing committee.
Television footage showed Kamal Majumder
striking Aparna's hand and pushing her aside, saying, "Keep it [the
microphone] away, keep it away." The lawmaker was also heard calling her
"stupid" and ordering some men surrounding him to "slap
her".
Later in the evening, the lawmaker at a talk
show on Mohona TV, which he owns, criticised journalists for their
"aggressive attitude and their conspiracy against him in the name of
journalism". On the show titled "information terrorism: conspiracy of
capitalist mass media," discussants, including the school principal and
the assistant principal of the school, blasted the Rtv reporter for
"conspiring to tarnish the image of the school".
No legal action was taken that day.
Tip of the
iceberg
You may say that the above are but isolated incidents and
that media in Bangladesh in reality, enjoy overwhelming freedom. You could not
be farther from the truth.
All this was just the tip of the iceberg. It is with great
sorrow that one will remember that action by the incumbent Awami League government
has led to the closure of Channel 1(27 April, 2010 ) , Sheershanews (21 August,2011), Amardesh (twice, in conjunction with the arrest of its editor,
Mahmudur Rahman, on 1 June 2010 and again, since 11 April 2013), as well as the closure of Islamic TV and Diganta
TV in light of coverage of the Motijheel massacre perpetrated by government
forces (both since 6th May 2013).
In this context,
the arrest of Mahmudur Rahman deserves special mention. The Economist noted
that Mahmudur Rahman was arrested a full four months after the main
offence for which he was charged saying that the real reason for his detention
might lay elsewhere.
This was the explanation they gave, “The day before he was
picked up Amar Desh had advertised an upcoming series of damning American
embassy cables on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s founding president and
the father of the current Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. The website of Amar
Desh announced the forthcoming series, which was to be translated into Bengali
from the WikiLeaks trove, with the headline: “Mujib: The New Mughal”. This was
a clear reference to the
absolute powers that “Chairman Mujib” assumed upon decreeing one-party rule
in February 1975. Another cable
notes that Sheikh Mujib “began to suffer the classic paranoia of the despot”,
speaks of his “failure to meet their (the Bengalees’) aspirations” and “his apparent
desire to hold power largely for personal aggrandisement and dynastic reasons”.
The content of the cables and the timing of Rahman’s
imprisonment makes it seem that the government’s desire to control the media
has a lot to do with its imperative to defend its own version of the country’s
history. The press would hardly be the first Bangladeshi institution to fall
crumble under such pressure. “
Let us see what the incumbent information minister had to say
about this. After the closure of the two television channels and the arrest of
Mahmudur Rahman, Inu, the minister of information, was visited by editors of
the country’s 15 daily newspapers, who demanded the
government allow the recently closed private television channels Diganta TV and
Islamic Television to go on air again and the release of Amardesh acting editor
Mahmudur Rahman. In a scathing reply to their collective plea,
he sternly informed them that such an appeal was ‘not in the best interest of
the media’ and that the editors
issued their statement without knowing the “entire facts”.
In conclusion,
So was the arrest of Golam Maola Rony MP really the ultimate manifestation
of the government’s respect for the country’s mass
media? I believe not. It was politics, pure and simple. An act put together to win sympathy. The true freedom of the press
is important. Not to protect the rights of newspapers, reporters, radio and
television stations and the like but to protect the right of the people to have
the information they need to make informed decisions about their government. The Awami League has not just put a plug on the face of the freedom of media, they have tried to ensure that the press is just a sleazy part of their mission to defend their own version of the country’s history. What we observe, my dear friends, is media manipulation and nurturing of the yellow press. Its that simple in Bangladesh.
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