Health Minister Mohammad Nasim has said the Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam should resign from the newspaper now that he has admitted to running “false corruption stories” against Sheikh Hasina based on information provided by the DGFI.
“He has already lost his credibility by publishing those fake stories and now he should quit the newspaper as the readers have lost their faith in him,” Nasim said at a joint meeting of the Jubo League in Dhaka yesterday.
“There is no guarantee that he [Mahfuz] will not run such stories in future to mislead the nation,” said Nasim, also the Awami League-led 14-party alliance spokesperson.
On a TV talk show earlier this month, Mahfuz admitted to running graft stories against Hasina during the 2007-08 military-backed caretaker regime on information fed by the military intelligence outfit DGFI.
“I admit it. It was a big mistake as an editor, in my journalism career,” he said on the talk show. The editor later clarified that it was a lapse in his editorial judgment in publishing reports without verifying them independently.
Nasim said: “Mahfuz Anam aimed at removing Hasina from politics and bring anti-democratic forces to power to implement the scheme of the DGFI.”
The beleaguered editor has been accused in several defamation cases. Prime Minister Hasina’s son, and also her ICT Affairs Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy and several MPs have demanded legal action against him.
On Thursday, Mostafizur Rahman Dulal, an assistant public prosecutor of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court, filed a sedition complaint at Dhaka’s Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. The court said it required government approval to take cognisance of the charges. After the Home Ministry’s nod, police will conduct the inquiry and take legal steps. The report will have to be submitted by March 28.
