journalist
Prothom Alo journalist ‘picked up by law enforcement agency’
Shamsuzzaman Shams, a reporter of Bangla daily Prothom Alo, was picked up allegedly by a law enforcement agency from his Savar residence early Wednesday (March 29, 2023).
Witnesses and family members said 16 Criminal Investigation Department (CID) members in plainclothes reached in front of Shamsuzzaman’s residence in Ambagan area adjacent to Jahangirnagar University around 4:30 am.
Later, seven-eight of them entered the house of the journalist and picked him up. They took him to Savar Bottola area where they have their ‘sehri’ at Nurjahan Hotel.
Chief security officer of the university Sudipta Shaheen, and a security guard were also with them at the hotel.
Read more: Journalist arrested under Digital Security Act in Khulna
They also seized a laptop, two mobile phone sets and a portable hard disc after searching the room of Shamsuzzaman.
Shamsuzzaman along with his mother has been living on the ground floor of the building in Ambagan area for the past one year. He is also the younger brother of Rabiul Karim, an assistant police commissioner who died in the Holey Artisan café attack in 2016.
At 4:45 am, the CID members again went to the house of Shamsuzzaman along with him.
Sub-inspector of Ashulia Police Station Md Raju and local journalist Ariful Islam were present there.
Read more: Satkhira journalist, earlier ‘picked up by law enforcers’, shown arrested
During their stay at the house for 5-7 minutes, Shamsuzzaman was asked to take some clothes.
Later they again left the house with Shamsuzzaman.
A police officer also told owner of the house Ferdous Alam that Shamsuzzaman wrote a report against the state and he was detained for interrogation.
Azad Rahman, additional superintendent of CID (media), said “I have no idea about it and there is no information of any case filed against him.”
Read More: ‘Strong possibility head injury led to brain haemorrhage, no sign of high blood pressure’: RMCH director on Jasmine Sultana’s death
Md Quamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Ashulia Police Station, said he was not informed about the detention of Shamsuzzaman. “Investigation is on to find out Shamsuzzaman,” he said.
Noted journalist Setara Musa passes away
Setara Musa, a noted journalist who edited the women's section of various newspapers, passed away at a hospital in the city on Tuesday. She was 83.
Setara, daughter of the prominent journalist Abdus Salam, breathed her last at the hospital in the afternoon, said journalist Parveen Sultana Jhuma, her own daughter.
The namaz-e-janaza of Setara, also the wife of prolific journalist ABM Musa, will be held at Iqbal Road Mosque in Mohammadpur after Esha prayer.
Later, her body will be taken to Fatehpur in Feni on Wednesday morning where she will be buried after Zuhr prayer near the grave of her husband ABM Musa.
Journalist-author Shahnaz Munni receives Anannya Lit Award 1429
The prestigious Anannya Literary Award 1429 (2023) was handed to journalist and author Shahnaz Munni on Saturday in the Poet Sufia Kamal Auditorium of the Bangladesh National Museum.
The award is given each year by acclaimed feminist magazine ‘Anannya’.
Eminent author Anwara Syed Haq presented the award to Munni as the chief guest of the ceremony, which was joined by Jahangirnagar University academician and author-researcher Hamim Kamrul Haque as the special guest.
Anannya editor Tasmima Hossain chaired the event. "I would like to congratulate Shahnaz Munni on earning the Anannya Literary Award 1429. She is a prolific writer, and I believe she will achieve great success in her career,” she said.
Sharing her joy over the achievement, Shahnaz Munni said: “For thirty years I have been writing, and this is the very first award I have ever achieved in my writing career. I am so grateful for this award and also to the fortnightly Anannya.”
Shahnaz Munni was born on February 8, 1969. Alongside her identity as a successful author, she is a renowned television journalist and currently working as the chief news editor at News24.
Her literary works include 24 books, namely ‘Elo Krubdho Ondhokar’, ‘Badur o Brandy’, ‘Tritiyo Ghonta Porar Agei’, ‘Pan Sundari, ‘Nirbachito Golpo’, ‘Ami ar Amin Jokhon Azimpurey Thaktam’ and ‘Snaner Shobdo’, which is being published from Mowla Brothers at this year’s Amar Ekushey Boi Mela.
Anannya Literary Award was introduced in 1993. The award honours a woman writer every year for her contribution to literature.
A handful of eminent women writers have been conferred with this prestigious award over the years, including Selina Hossain, Rabeya Khatun, Niaz Zaman, Rizia Rahman, Nilima Ibrahim, Dilara Hashem, Rubi Rahman, Begum Akhtar Kamal, Jharna Das Purkayastha, Akimun Rahman, Nadira Majumdar and more.
Read more: 10 promising, successful women receive Anannya Award 2021
CRAB denounces police’s misconduct with journo
The Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh (CRAB) on Thursday denounced the incident of a police officer's misconduct with a journalist while performing duty.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hayatul Islam of Motijheel Division of Police has been uncooperative and discourteous with Mahbub Momtazi, a member of CRAB and Staff Reporter of Bangladesh Pratidin, according to a press release.
Read more: CRAB expresses concern over a series of mugging incident
CRAB president Mirza Mehdi Tamal and general secretary Mamunur Rashid along with the leaders of the executive committee strongly condemned the behavior of the police officer.
Besides, the leaders requested to strengthen the cordial relationship between the police and the crime reporters.
They also demanded a divisional step against the officer after investigation.
Satkhira journalist allegedly picked up by law enforcers missing
Law enforcers in plainclothes allegedly picked up a Satkhira journalist up on his way to home from an assignment on Monday.
Manabadhikar Shongskriti Foundation, a human rights organisation headed by noted activist Sultana Kamal, expressed deep concern over the incident and demanded immediate release of Raghunath Kha, local correspondent of Dainik Projonmo Ekattor and Deepto TV, in a press release.
It said the journalist went to Khalishakhali area under Debhata upazila on professional purpose and captured some photos.
The law enforcers in plainclothes intercepted him on his way back at Day Night College roundabout and took him away - in fact there is no record of his detention.
However that has been common across all the agencies for some time now.
Read more: Missing journalist Sarowar found in Sitakunda
On information, the victim’s wife Supriya Rani rushed to the concerned police station and other offices but they denied the detention.
Addressing the role of journalists in taking the country forward, the human rights organisation demanded his immediate release.
Barishal journalist who always helped others among those dead in Shariatpur road crash
In order to pick up her husband's remains from Jajira Health Complex, Mala Rakhain, the wife of Masud Rana, a local journalist and freelancer who was one of those killed in the Shariatpur road accident on Tuesday, began her day differently.
Mala used to go to her restaurant every day at a very early hour. She and Masud Rana had opened a restaurant in Barishal city to realize their dream.
Masud Rana, Bureau Chief of Dainik Navchetna Patrika and the younger son of Sobhan Mridha and Kahinur Begum couple, used to reside on Gorachand Das Road in the city.
Around 3:15 pm, Masud's body arrived at his home in Bashail near Agailjhara.
Masud's family, friends, and acquaintances flocked there to say goodbye to him.
Bappi, a relative of Masud, said “Masud was so benevolent and he used to help others without thinking anything. He did much more for others than what he did for himself.”
Also read: Patient among 6 dead as ambulance crashes into truck in Shariatpur
Earlier, on Tuesday, six people were killed as an ambulance crashed into a speeding truck near Padma Bridge South police station in Shariatpur's Jajira upazila early Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Jahanara Begum, 55, a patient; her daughter Lutfun Nahar Lima, 30; health worker Fazle Rabbi, 28; ambulance driver Jilani, 28; helper Rabiul Islam, 26; and Masud Rana, 30, a local journalist of Barishal Bureau Chief of Dainik Navchetna Patrika.
Masud, as a friend of Lutfunnahar Lima, boarded the ambulance.
Mushfiqur Rahman, another local journalist, said “Masud worked for the destitute people during Covid pandemic and always helped the poor. It is so difficult to accept his departure like this.”
Body of female journalist recovered from Hatiljheel residence
Police recovered the body of a female journalist from her residence in the city’s Hatirjheel area on Tuesday evening.
The deceased---Sharmin Shabnam, was an assignment editor of the online news portal ‘The Report’.
Abdur Rashid, officer-in-charge of Hatirjheel police station, said being informed they rushed to the residence and recovered the body around 5pm.
Read more: Woman’s body recovered from Hatirjheel Lake
The body was sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for autopsy, he said, adding that no one was found in the residence during the recovery of the body.
However, the victim’s husband remained absconding since the incident, he added.
Journalist suspensions widen rift between Twitter and media
Elon Musk's abrupt suspension of several journalists who cover Twitter widens a growing rift between the social media site and media organizations that have used the platform to build their audiences.
Individual reporters with The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other news agencies saw their accounts go dark Thursday.
Musk tweeted late Friday that the company would lift the suspensions following the results of a public poll on the site. The poll showed 58.7% of respondents favored a move to immediately unsuspend accounts over 41.3% who said the suspensions should be lifted in seven days.
The company has not explained why the accounts were taken down. But Musk took to Twitter on Thursday night to accuse journalists of sharing private information about his whereabouts, which he described as “basically assassination coordinates.” He provided no evidence for that claim.
Many advertisers abandoned Twitter over content moderation questions after Musk acquired it in October, and he now risks a rupture with media organizations, which are among the most active on the platform.
Most of the accounts were back early Saturday. One exception was Business Insider's Linette Lopez, who was suspended after the other journalists, also with no explanation, she told The Associated Press.
Lopez published a series of articles between 2018 and 2021 highlighting what she called dangerous Tesla manufacturing shortcomings.
Shortly before being suspended, she said she had posted court-related documents to Twitter that included a 2018 Musk email address. That address is not current, Lopez said, because “he changes his email every few weeks."
On Tuesday, she posted a 2019 story about Tesla troubles, commenting, “Now, just like then, most of @elonmusk’s wounds are self inflicted.”
The same day, she cited reports that Musk was reneging on severance for laid-off Twitter employees, threatening workers who talk to the media and refusing to make rent payments. Lopez described his actions as “classic Elon-going-for-broke behavior.”
Steve Herman, a national correspondent for Voice of America, told The Associated Press that his suspended Twitter account still hadn't been fully restored as of Saturday afternoon because of his refusal to delete three tweets that the company flagged for purportedly sharing Musk's whereabouts. Although Herman's Twitter timeline is now visible to most users, he said he can't see it himself nor can he post anything new until he removes the tweets that the company contends violate its revised terms of service.
“I am in a new level of purgatory," Herman said. “I do not believe anything I have tweeted violated any reasonable standard of any social media platform."
Read more: Twitter suspends journalists who wrote about owner Elon Musk
Alarm over the suspensions extended beyond media circles to the United Nations, which was reconsidering its involvement in Twitter.
The move sets “a dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The reporters' suspensions followed Musk’s decision Wednesday to permanently ban an account that automatically tracked the flights of his private jet using publicly available data. That also led Twitter to change its rules for all users to prohibit the sharing of another person’s current location without their consent.
Several of the reporters suspended Thursday night had been writing about the new policy and Musk's rationale for imposing it, which involved his allegations about a stalking incident he said affected his family Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
The official Twitter account for Mastodon, a decentralized alternative social network where many Twitter users are fleeing, was also banned. The reason was unclear, though it had tweeted about the jet-tracking account. Twitter also began preventing users from posting links to Mastodon accounts, in some cases flagging them as potential malware.
“This is of course a bald-faced lie,” cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs posted.
Explaining the reporter bans, Musk tweeted, “Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else."
He later added: “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”
" Doxxing ” refers to disclosing someone’s identity, address, phone number or other personal details that violate their privacy and could bring harm.
The Washington Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, said technology reporter Drew Harwell “was banished without warning, process or explanation” following the publication of accurate reporting about Musk.
CNN said in a statement that “the impulsive and unjustified suspension of a number of reporters, including CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, is concerning but not surprising.”
“Twitter’s increasing instability and volatility should be of incredible concern for everyone who uses Twitter,” the statement added.
Another suspended journalist, Matt Binder of the technology news outlet Mashable, said he was banned Thursday night immediately after sharing a screenshot that O’Sullivan had posted before his own suspension.
The screenshot showed a statement from the Los Angeles Police Department sent earlier Thursday to multiple media outlets, including the AP, about how it was in touch with Musk's representatives about the alleged stalking incident.
Binder said he did not share any location data or any links to the jet-tracking account or other location-tracking accounts.
“I have been highly critical of Musk but never broke any of Twitter’s listed policies,” Binder said in an email.
The suspensions come as Musk makes major changes to content moderation on Twitter. He has tried, through the release of selected company documents dubbed “The Twitter Files,” to claim the platform suppressed right-wing voices under its previous leaders.
Read more: Elon Musk sells $3.58B worth of Tesla stock, purpose unknown
He has promised to let free speech reign and has reinstated high-profile accounts that previously broke Twitter's rules against hateful conduct or harmful misinformation. He has also said he would suppress negativity and hate by depriving some accounts of “freedom of reach.”
Opinion columnist Bari Weiss, who tweeted out some of “The Twitter Files,” called for the suspended journalists to be reinstated.
“The old regime at Twitter governed by its own whims and biases and it sure looks like the new regime has the same problem,” she tweeted “I oppose it in both cases.”
If the suspensions lead to the exodus of media organizations that are highly active on Twitter, the platform would be changed at the fundamental level, said Lou Paskalis, longtime marketing and media executive and former Bank of America head of global media.
CBS briefly shut down its activity on Twitter in November due to “uncertainty” about new management, but media organizations have largely remained on the platform.
“We all know news breaks on Twitter ... and to now go after journalists really saws at the main foundational tent pole of Twitter,” Paskalis said. “Driving journalists off Twitter is the biggest self-inflicted wound I can think of.”
The suspensions may be the biggest red flag yet for advertisers, Paskalis said, some of which had already cut their spending on Twitter over uncertainty about the direction Musk is taking the platform.
“It is an overt demonstration of what advertisers fear the most — retribution for an action that Elon doesn’t agree with," he added.
On Thursday night, Twitter's Spaces conference chat went down shortly after Musk abruptly signed out of a session hosted by a journalist during which he had been questioned about the reporters' ousting. Musk later tweeted that Spaces had been taken offline to deal with a “Legacy bug.” Late Friday, Spaces returned.
Advertisers are also monitoring the potential loss of Twitter users. Twitter is projected to lose 32 million users over the next two years, according to a forecast by Insider Intelligence, which cited technical issues and the return of accounts banned for offensive posts.
Meanwhile, some Twitter alternatives are gaining momentum.
Mastodon on Friday had more than 6 million users, nearly double the 3.4 million it had on the day Musk took ownership of Twitter. On many of the thousands of confederated networks in the open-source Mastodon platform, administrators and users solicited donations as disaffected Twitter users strained computing resources. Many of the networks, known as “instances,” are crowd-funded. The platform is designed to be ad-free.
DCAB shocked at death of journalist Rased Mehedi's father
Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) has expressed deep shock at the death of Mohammad Ali, father of its member journalist Rased Mehedi.
In a condolence message on Monday, DCAB President Rezaul Karim Lotus and its General Secretary AKM Moinuddin conveyed deep sympathy to Prothidiner Bangladesh Special Correspondent Rased Mehedi and his family members.
Read more: DCAB shocked over death of journalist Jhumur's mother
They prayed for salvation of the departed soul.
Mohammad Ali, 77, breathed his last early Monday at a hospital in Dhaka.
He had long been suffering from old age complications.
Read more: Journalist Raihan M Chowdhury dies
Mohammad Ali was headmaster of Sonatala High School in Bagura and Principal of Panchagarh Police Line School and College.
He left behind wife, two sons, a daughter and host of relatives to mourn his death.
He will be buried at his family graveyard in Shibganj Upazila of Bogura later today (Monday).
Journalists criticise using photos of Khaleda, Tarique on ‘media card’ for covering BNP’s Rajshahi rally
Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s move to force journalists — covering today’s rally in Rajshahi — to put on press cards with photos of BNP’s top leaders has triggered a wave of criticism from local journalists.
Ahead of the party’s rally, the press cards were being distributed yesterday among journalists and they were told to enter the venue wearing the cards.
Enraged by the condition, some journalists even took to social media, raising objections at Tarique Rahman’s photo being used on the press card, as he is a “convicted fugitive”.
Rafiqul Islam, president of Rajshahi Journalists Union, told journalists that “unlike rallies held by other parties, this instruction of making a party card mandatory for journos is really humiliating.”
Read: Locals complain of internet service disruption around BNP rally venue in Rajshahi
The press card contains photos of General Ziaur Rahman, founder of BNP, party chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman.
Tarique, who now lives in London, has been convicted in a number of cases.
Referring to this use of photos of party leaders, Rafiqul said, “This is completely unacceptable for journalists to use this card to cover the event.”
Tarique Rahman was sentenced to life in prison over the heinous August 21, 2004 grenade attack — launched on an Awami League rally to annihilate the party’s leadership, including the then opposition leader and current PM Sheikh Hasina.
Read: BNP’s Rajshahi rally begins with a huge turnout
An FBI official testified in the money laundering cases against Tarique. The acting chief of BNP has also been accused of instigating mobs in Bangladesh to carry out grisly arson attacks in 2013 that killed many after his party boycotted the election.