Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud Thursday raised the question of whether dishonouring the country's independence by publishing lies using the name of a child in exchange for Tk10 is a crime or not.
“It is almost identical to publishing fake news on Basanti's wearing a net," he told journalists after unwrapping a book titled “Bangabandhu in Newspaper Advertisements” published by the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) at the conference room of his ministry at the Secretariat.
He was responding to journalists' query about a story published by Prothom Alo's online edition and later posted on its Facebook page on Independence Day.
The journalists also asked the minister about justice for arranging a musical program centring on the Meril-Prothom Alo award function on the day of the collapse of Rana Plaza, which had killed hundreds of people in 2013, death of a schoolboy from electrocution at a Prothom Alo program at Dhaka Residential Model College and ridiculing Independence by writing falsehood with the name of a child.
Replying to those questions, Dr Hasan, also an Awami League joint general secretary, said: "I would like to ask you that publishing a report on Independence Day ridiculing independence, trying to force a child to make comments in exchange for Tk10 and later writing fake comments using the name of the child… does it not go against the ethics of journalism? It (the news of Prothom Alo) is facing strong criticism.”
Prothom Alo withdrew the news afterwards as they realized that it was not correct, he said, but screenshots of the news were saved in different domains and shared by many people, which are still available and can be found on social media.
In this context, aggrieved persons have filed cases and the relevant journalist has also been arrested, the Awami League leader said, adding: "Everything will come out in the police investigation and the law will take its own course.”