The High Court has directed Bangla Daily Prothom Alo to give Tk1 lakh to a female worker of Apex Footwear Limited as compensation for publishing an incorrect report on her abortion.
An HC bench comprising of Justice Qazi Reza-Ul-Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman passed the order on Tuesday afternoon after Kaliakoir upazila UNO submitted a probe report before it.
The probe report read Hamida had an abortion accidentally as she took medicine of her own.
In its order, the HC observed that the newspaper authorities will have to give the compensation money to Hamida Akter from its social responsibility for tarnishing her image by publishing an incorrect report on her abortion.
According to a report published by the newspaper on May 10, Hamida gave birth to a child in the toilet of a factory of Apex Footwear Limited as the authorities did not grant her leave.
Following the report on May 13, the HC issued a suo-moto rule, directing the UNO of Kaliakoir to submit a probe report over the issue and summoned three officials of the company before it.
However, the daily on the following day published an apology, saying that the news was based on incorrect information.
Later, the HC exempted the three officials of Apex Footwear from its ruling after they appeared before it on May 24 and explained that the Prothom Alo report was wrong.
