The High Court yesterday stayed for three months the proceedings of 72 cases filed on charges of defamation and sedition against The Daily Star Editor and Publisher Mahfuz Anam.
The court also issued a ruling upon the government authorities concerned to explain why the initiation and continuation of the cases should not be declared illegal. The law secretary and inspector general of police have been asked to respond to the ruling.
The stay will continue until the disposal of the ruling.
The High Court bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Huq came up with the order and ruling following a writ petition filed by Mahfuz Anam on March 27, challenging the legality of the case proceedings.
The editor’s counsel, Md Abbas Uddin, told the Dhaka Tribune that they have argued that such number of cases, which were filed on the same grounds across the country, cannot be lodged for similar allegations.
Saying it was a violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights, Abbas said the cases were actually filed to harass the editor.
They also told the court that according to the law, defamation cases have to be filed only by the aggrieved persons. None of the plaintiffs across the country was personally aggrieved, he said.
The court considered that travelling across the country to physically appear before the courts in Mahfuz Anam’s age was not possible and thereafter issued the ruling, Abbas said.
“Now there will be hearing on the ruling. The court did not fix a deadline for the government side to come up with an explanation. The court may fix the hearing date after three months,” he said.
A total of 83 lawsuits, including 17 for sedition, have been filed so far against the newspaper editor in 53 districts.
Of these, one was rejected by a Sylhet court. Mahfuz Anam challenged legality of 72 from the rest of the 82 lawsuits.
After the writ petition was filed, the court held hearing on March 28 and kept the petition stand over. The matter came to the cause-list of the court yesterday.
Earlier, the High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain granted Mahfuz Anam a four-week anticipatory bail in 66 cases. He also got bail in 10 cases from different trial courts.
The case spree against the editor began days after he made an introspective comment at a TV talk show on February 3 about a lapse in his editorial judgement in publishing some reports, based on information given by the Taskforce Interrogation Cell during the 2007-08 caretaker government rule, without being able to verify those independently.
The cases against the editor have drawn condemnation from local and foreign journalists and their unions as well as human rights bodies.
The Editors’ Council too had condemned the countrywide filing of cases against Mahfuz Anam, also the council’s General Secretary.
A resolution adopted at an Editors’ Council meeting on February 17 reads: “The meeting feels that such incidents go against freedom of the press. We expect that all cases against Mahfuz Anam will be withdrawn. The Editors’ Council expects that good sense would prevail among all quarters in this regard.”
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also expressed their concerns over the issue, saying the attempts to pursue coordinated legal proceedings against the editor was a clear attempt to intimidate the media and muzzle press freedom in Bangladesh.
“The high number of cases and the filing of these across the country indicates an aggressive politically-motivated effort to harass a senior editor and a key newspaper in Bangladesh,” read an IFJ statement released in mid-February.
“The use of sedition and defamation laws in this case is extremely concerning. Sedition laws are regarded as a relic of the past but are too often being revived as a means to silence political opposition and criticism in the region. This is a worrying development in an already extremely challenged media environment of Bangladesh.”
Thursday, April 25, 2024
