Reports On OMS: Case against two editors

Editors of two online news portals have been sued under the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA) after the media outlets ran reports on misappropriation of OMS rice in Thakurgaon's Baliadangi upazila recently.

Mominul Islam Bhasani, president of the upazila unit of Swechchasebak League, filed the case on Friday night against Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, and Mohiuddin Sarker, acting editor of Jagonews24.com, for "deliberately publishing false and defamatory news".

Two Facebook users named Shawan Amin and Rahim Shuvo were also accused in the case filed with Baliadangi Police Station.

In the case statement, Mominul said the authorities recovered 68 sacks of rice, meant to be sold among the low-income people at Tk 10 per kg, in the upazila's Palashbari a couple of days ago.

The next day, Upazila Food Controller Nikhil Chandra Barman filed a case with the same police station accusing six people, including local rice dealer Amirul Islam, his brother Jamirul Islam and wife Kulsum Akhter, in this regard.

"I have no connection with the accused and they are not my relatives. But the two news portals ran two stories linking me to the misappropriation and claiming that the accused were my relatives… I asked their local correspondents to run a rejoinder, which they did not," he said.

He said one of his brothers Aminul Islam, not Amirul, is the chairman of Boro Palashbari Union Parishad.

In the case statement, Mominul also said the two other accused, Shawan and Rahim, uploaded two posts on Facebook branding him a rice thief.

He said the accused tarnished his image and that of his party and defamed him by spreading false and fabricated information involving him in the misappropriation.

Habibul Haque Prodhan, officer-in-charge of Baliadangi Police Station, told our local correspondent that the case was filed under section 25/29/31 of the Digital Security Act and that they were looking into the matter.

CMSD'S THREAT

The Central Medical Stores Depot (CMSD) has recently threatened to sue those publishing reports and spreading information "defaming" the health minister, his son, the health services secretary and the director general of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) over the supply of ordinary masks in the name of N95 ones.

In an advertisement published in newspapers, CMSD said the persons were in no way involved in the purchase and that the propaganda was "intentional" and had "vested interests".

"It is being warned the perpetrators will be charged under the Digital Security Act if they do not stop such actions," said the advertisement published on April 17.

Supply of the ordinary masks in the name of N95 masks stirred protest and condemnation, mostly from doctors, on social media.

Many doctors believed that the supply of substandard masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was leading to Covid-19 infection among healthcare service providers.

DOCTOR SERVED SHOW-CAUSE NOTICE

A doctor at Noakhali 250-bed General Hospital has been served a show-cause notice for one of his Facebook posts in which he criticised the health secretary for not providing N95 masks and PPEs to physicians.

Mohammad Farid Uddin Chowdhury, deputy director of the hospital, issued the notice on Saturday asking Abu Taher, an assistant surgeon (anesthetist), to respond in writing within three days.

In his Facebook post, Taher wrote neither he nor his colleague got any N95, KN95 or FFP2 masks. "Then why the health secretary was lying that the masks have been distributed at hospitals?" he wrote.

He also alleged that only two sets of PPE were given to his department with eight employees in the last one month. During that period, he carried out more than 150 surgeries, he said.

Talking to The Daily Star, the doctor said, "I only wrote the facts… The health ministry's secretary was saying there was a reserve of N95 and KN95 masks at the hospitals. We haven't been given any. Where do those go?"

Taher said as a citizen of the country he has every right to express his opinion. He said he would reply to the notice.

The issuance of the notice sparked protest among the medical community. Many took to social media to criticise it.

NURSES ASKED NOT TO TALK TO MEDIA

Meanwhile, the government has asked nurses not to speak to the media after some nurses reported shortage of food for health workers at Kuwait Bangladesh Friendship Government Hospital.

All the staffers under the Department of Nursing and Midwifery cannot even speak publicly without permission from the higher authorities in line with the Public Service Act, its Director General Siddika Akter said in an office order on Friday. The order came after a number of media outlets, quoting nurses, published reports on the shortage of food and questioning the standard of PPEs and masks.