Two AL MPs blast Star editor

Two Awami League lawmakers yesterday demanded in parliament that the government take legal measures for exemplary punishment to The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam for publishing "news against Sheikh Hasina" in 2007.

Speaking on the thanksgiving motion on the president's speech, AL Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif and Publicity Secretary Hasan Mahmud also lambasted the intellectuals and civil society members for speaking against the filing of cases against The Daily Star editor.

"Our beloved leader and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had to spend 11 months in jail due to false news published against her after the 1/11 changeover. After seven years, he [Mahfuz Anam] has admitted that he made a mistake. But he didn't offer an apology wilfully as he was forced to say sorry while speaking with journalists in a talk show," Hanif added.

"Mahfuz Anam is a very intelligent person with wisdom. He had published the news that Tk 3 crore was given to Sheikh Hasina in a briefcase. How come a person like him couldn't understand that a briefcase would not contain Tk 3 crore whereas the general people understood this?

"He cannot avoid his responsibility just by offering apologies for publishing such false news," Hanif added.

"He [Mahfuz Anam] actually published the news in a planned way as part of a vested quarter's conspiracy to see politics minus Sheikh Hasina," Hanif alleged.

The AL leader also said that apart from publishing "false news", Mahfuz Anam had also written several "editorials against AL President Sheikh Hasina".

"How will he justify those editorials? Will he say that he was forced to write those editorials like he said he was forced to publish false news on the basis of supplied information against Sheikh Hasina?" Hanif said, adding, Mahfuz Anam had no scope to get immunity in this regard.

He further said, "The nation thinks legal action and exemplary punishment are appropriate for Mahfuz Anam and others who were involved in the conspiracy to destroy democracy and politics. This should be done so that none in future can dare to take part in such conspiracy."

Hasan Mahmud asked why actions would not be taken against the Star editor when ministers, policemen and MPs had to go to jail for their mistakes.

"Such laws should not exist in the country that you will be spared after tarnishing my image," he observed.

He called upon the government and the information minister to formulate necessary laws to protect people from the attack of yellow journalism.

The Daily Star editor has been facing a barrage of cases since February 9, days after he made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgment in publishing without independent verification a few reports based on information given by the Task Force Interrogation (TFI) cell during the military-backed caretaker government rule in 2007.

As many as 79 cases, 17 of which are pleas to bring sedition charges, have been filed against him.

In 2007, The Daily Star ran 11 reports based on information given by the TFI cell, without being able to verify those independently. Of those reports, seven were on alleged corruption of Khaleda Zia, her two sons and other BNP leaders, three on alleged graft of Hasina and one on the then chief conservator of forests, Osman Gani.

Presently, the cases being filed against Mahfuz Anam allege that the reports published by this newspaper led to the arrest of AL chief Sheikh Hasina, thus defaming her.