Saturday evening’s phone call between Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia was widely anticipated as a possible breakthrough to lead the country out of political deadlock.
After the call, senior figures representing both parties commented on the conversation and provided quotes which were reported in various newspapers.
Dhaka Tribune, in common with other media outlets, has received a full audio recording of the telephone conversation between the leaders. It is not known who recorded the conversation. Nor is it known who originally released the recording.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu did express the view that the phone conversation should be publicly disclosed, but has also stated that the ruling party did not release the recording.
Early on Tuesday morning, we took the decision to upload a link to the full recording on our website in the public interest.
Our position is simple. While we do not condone the unauthorised recording of private phone calls, it is clear that there is a high degree of public interest in this particular conversation and indeed this is acknowledged by the parties themselves.
People have a right to listen to the full conversation themselves, rather than relying on partial quotes or commentary by others. As leaders of parties which consistently obtained over 80% of the votes cast in the last three general elections, the public has a huge stake in holding their dialogue to scrutiny.
Although it appears the phone call has not broken new ground, we hope it lays the basis for dialogue to allow fair and free elections to be held soon.
