ATN boss declared 'enemy of media'
Journalist associations yesterday declared ATN Bangla Chairman Mahfuzur Rahman "enemy of the media" a day after staff of the private TV channel swooped on a union leader.
Jahangir Alam Prodhan, organising secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ), came under attack after he had called for the arrest of Mahfuzur at a human chain organized on Sunday to demand the arrest of the killers of the journalist couple Sagar and Runi.
To protest the assault, newsmen from different media organisations yesterday organised another human chain before Jatiya Press Club, where they demanded that Mahfuzur be arrested in the journalist couple murder case.
Addressing the crowd, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), said that from video footage they had identified ten attackers who would face action by the associations they belonged to.
Of the ten identified, Za E Mamun, SM Babu, Manos Ghosh, Keramat Ullah Biplob, Bhanu Ranjan Chakrabarty, Shawkat Milton, Rahat Minhaj, Mahmudur Rahman and Nadira Kiron are from ATN Bangla and Shamim Ahmed from Bangle daily Bhorer Kagoj.
Accusing ATN Bangla and ATN News of promoting yellow journalism, the leaders called upon journalists to boycott the TV channels.
They also urged journalists not to attend any talk shows or any programmes broadcast by the channels. Mahfuzur Rahman is the chairman of both the private satellite television stations.
Eminent journalist ABM Musa and editor of News Today Reazuddin Ahmed, among others, were present at the programme organised by Jatiya Press Club, Dhaka Reporters' Unity, two factions of BFUJ and DUJ.
The journalists' associations had announced the programme on Sunday after ATN Bangla newsmen assaulted Prodhan.
ATN Bangla, however, claimed it was its newsmen who had been attacked.
Journalists today will march in a procession from the Jatiya Press Club to the Prime Minister's Office and submit a memorandum to the PM, seeking action to bring the criminals to justice in the Sagar-Runi murder case and all other journalist killing cases.
Sagar Sarowar, news editor at private TV channel Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were found murdered on February 11 in their rented flat at West Rajabazar in the capital.
The ATN Bangla boss drew huge flak from the journalists' community after he, at a press briefing in London on May 30, said, "Sagar and Runi were victims of an extra-marital affair." He also claimed to have video footage that hinted at the motive behind the murders.
President of a faction of BFUJ Ruhul Amin Gazi, secretary generals Abdul Jalil Bhuyian and Shawkat Mahmud, DUJ presidents Omar Faruque and Abdus Shahid, general secretaries Shaban Mahmud and Baker Hossain and Jatiya Press Club President Kamaluddin Sabuj, General Secretary Syed Abdal Ahmed and Dhaka Reporters Unity President Sakhawat Hossain Badsha also spoke.
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