The High Court yesterday ordered the daily Prothom Alo to give Tk1 lakh to a female worker of Apex Footwear Limited in a month as compensation for publishing a wrong report.
Disposing of a suo moto rule, the court observed that the newspaper must give Hamida Akter the money as part of social responsibility since her image was tarnished by the report on her abortion, Deputy Attorney General Tapos Kumar Biswas said.
The May 10 report said pregnant Hamida’s leave appeal was turned down by factory supervisor Ratan Mia. Later she fell unconscious in a toilet and gave birth to a baby. The infant died after they were taken to Shafipur Modern Hospital.
The bench of Justice Qazi Reza-Ul-Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman passed the order after the Kaliakoir upazila nirbahi officer submitted a probe report.
The probe committee found that Hamida had an abortion accidentally as she took medicine of her own. She did not give birth to any child, rather it was a five-month fetus.
Following the report, the court had issued the rule on its own volition and summoned three officials of Apex to appear on May 24. The three officials appeared before the court and said though the report was wrong, they had taken measures for Hamida’s treatment. The court later exempted them from the rule.
In the meantime, the daily published a clarification saying that the report was made on wrong information. The court took the clarification into consideration and yesterday asked its authorities to pay the compensation.