Seek legal action for false news
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked her cabinet colleagues to seek legal action against “the newspapers and journalists reporting false and fabricated news against them.”
The directive came when some ministers at a weekly cabinet meeting requested her to take action against “some newspapers and journalists” for tarnishing their image by publishing “completely false and fabricated news,” said meeting sources.
Preferring anonymity, two senior ministers said the prime minister told the meeting that the media must be open to criticism like the politicians are to them.
Commenting on a Bangla daily's news report that he owns three apartments in Dhaka and a “royal palace” in his Patuakhali constituency, State Minister for Religious Affairs Md Shahjahan Miah told the cabinet that the report was completely false and fabricated.
“I urge you [PM] to take action against the newspaper and its journalists,” he was quoted as saying by a senior minister.
“The false news has spoiled my image,” Shahjahan said in an emotion-choked voice.
The prime minister suggested that he should take the matter to court or the press council to seek justice.
“But I cannot suggest harassing the newspaper's journalists,” Hasina was quoted as saying by another minister.
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan told the meeting that a newspaper published a report that he went abroad 14 times on official visits.
“But actually, I have so far travelled abroad three times on official visits,” he was quoted by one of his colleagues.
A few other ministers wondered how information shared in a close-door meeting leaked out to the media.
Referring to a meeting between the prime ministers and AL leaders at Gono Bhaban on Sunday, State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak said it is mysterious how the contents of discussions at the meeting got published in newspapers.
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