Verdict on contempt rule against Prothom Alo Mar 13
The High Court today fixed Thursday for delivering the verdict in the contempt of court rule against Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman.
After hearing arguments on the rule, the HC set the date.
Earlier in the morning, the bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Zafar Ahmed exonerated the Prothom Alo editor from personal appearance in the contempt rule after he appeared before the court to comply with its yesterday’s order.
During a half an hour queries since 11:30am, the bench asked the editor whether he signed the reply to the contempt rule consciously and Rahman replied positively.
Rahman's lawyer Shahdeen Malik submitted the reply before the court yesterday.
In reply to a question from the court, the editor of the Bangla daily said the media are always in favour of independence of Judiciary and are aware of its dignity, prestige and honour.
The purpose of the newspaper is not to attack or malign the judiciary, he informed the court.
If the court feels that it has been maligned by the Prothom Alo article written by its joint editor Mizanur Rahman Khan under the headline, "Minute-e Ekti Agam Jamin Kibhabe", (how an anticipatory bail possible in a minute) published on February 28, then the newspaper have nothing but to apologise to the court, Rahman said.
As the editor of the daily, he owns the responsibilities for publishing the article but it is not possible for him to go through or supervise each and every sentence of all the articles of the newspaper, he said.
The editor further said the article’s intention was not to malign or hurt anybody or community.
Justice Naima however said the article has been written in such a manner, which expresses the writer’s anger particularly on the bench led by her.
In a funny way, the presiding judge said my reputation was soared after the publication of this article. “Everyone knows us now. Thanks to Prothom Alo,” said Justice Naima.
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