The war crimes tribunal yesterday disposed of a contempt of court petition against two editors of London-based magazine Economist for publishing Skype conversation between a sitting judge and Ahmed Ziauddin, a Belgium-based Bangladeshi expat last year.
Chief Editor Rob Gifford and South Asia Bureau Chief Adam Roberts of the weekly were discharged as the tribunal said it had not found any clue that the duo was involved in the hacking of the Skype conversation.
The tribunal in its order said: “We perused the petition and the reply, and got no involvement of the opponent [accused] in the hacking. So the contempt petition is disposed of with some observations.”
While passing order, the three-member International Crimes Tribunal 1, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, also gave five observations on how journalists and media personnel should collect information while covering an ongoing trial.
According to the observations, no journalists can communicate with any tribunal judge directly or over phone or using any personal means to gather information.
Secondly, if anyone wants some information about any case, they have to approach through their lawyers.
The tribunal said: “If a journalist has any administrative query or information, they can directly contact with the registrar of the tribunal who is the designated person for the task.”
It also said journalists should not publish any report which is collected “illegally.” And finally, the tribunal asked journalists to refrain from “scandalising” the court.
The tribunal, however, did not explain the directives.
On December 6 last year, the tribunal issued the show cause notice against the duo asking them to explain why contempt of court proceedings should not be taken against them for “interfering in ongoing trial and violating privacy of a judge.”
The notice was issued when a person had called Justice Md Nizamul Huq, formerly chairman of tribunal 1, to verify the hacked matter of his Skype conversation with Ziauddin.
The Skype controversy, which led to the resignation of Justice Huq on December 11, began after Bangla national daily Amar Desh published full transcript of the conversation.”
On May 14, defence counsel Mokhlesur Rahman told the tribunal that the Economist had not violate any law by communicating with a judge. He also pleaded to resolve the contempt accusation against them.
Terming “hacking” an offence, prosecutor Sultan Mahmud said in his submission that publishing report on hacked information was liable to offence. He claimed that it had been done to make tribunal controversial.