Ekattor TV’s Special Correspondent Mufti Parvez Nadir Reza and Bangla Tribune’s Senior Reporter Shahed Shafiq have won the first-ever Rotary Media Award in development journalism for their outstanding reporting in broadcast and print media categories respectively. The awards were given on Saturday at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre in the capital during the District Conference of the Rotary International District (RID) 3281. Four other journalists--Abdullah Shafi of Nagorik TV and Ahmed Fazlay Rabbi of ATN News in broadcast category while Jesmin Papri of News Bangla and Gouranga Nandi of daily Kaler Kantha in print and online category were the other nominees for their reporting. Also read: Independence Award: Amir Hamza’s name dropped from list The two winners received Tk 1 lakh as prize money, a crest and a certificate each while the nominees were also given a crest and a certificate each.

A Dhaka court on Monday granted interim bail to Ekattor TV's head of news Shakil Ahmed in a case filed by a woman accusing him of having sexual relationship with her  and forcing her to abort the foetus.   Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge’s Court Judge KM Imrul Kayes passed the order during a hearing on the bail plea submitted by the accused on December 6. Earlier on November 8, Shakil got four weeks of anticipatory bail after surrendering to the High Court. READ: Evaly scam: Mithila, Faria get anticipatory bail On November 4 a female presenter of a private television channel filed the case against him at Gulshan police station. In the complaint the presenter said Shakil cheated her with a false promise of marriage. But when she got pregnant with his child he forced her to abort it and later refused to marry her. Shakil denied the allegations as false and fabricated. READ: Expelled Sramik League leader Tufan gets bail in money laundering case

Ekattor TV Associate News Producer Rifat Sultana, who tested positive for Covid-19 a week ago, died at a city hospital Friday evening after suffering a cardiac arrest. The 32-year-old journalist had also been suffering from pregnancy-related complications. Parvez Reza, special correspondent of the private TV channel, confirmed the news to UNB saying: "Rifat's husband and mother-in-law also tested Covid-19 positive." Also read: Ex-law minister Abdul Matin Khasru dies She had to undergo a Caesarean delivery on Thursday and the newborn baby has been kept in another private hospital in the city. The private television channel also shared the news of Rifat's death on its verified Facebook page. Meantime, Bangladesh broke its previous records of single-day death count with 101 fatalities in 24 hours until Friday morning although the number of new cases remained below the 5,000-mark. Also read Covid-19: Bangladesh shatters single-day fatalities record with 101 deaths The death tally now stands at 10,182 with a mortality rate of 1.43%, the Directorate General of Health Services said. Also, the daily infection rate climbed to 23.36% with 4,417 new cases.