DRU expels 11 members
Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday expelled its 11 members, including 10 journalists of private TV channel ATN Bangla, for attacking a union leader at a human chain on June 24.
They are Za E Mamun, head of news of ATN Bangla; its special correspondents Shawkat Milton, Keramat Ullah Biplob, Manash Ghosh, Nadira Kiran and Mahmudur Rahman, senior reporter SM Babu, staff reporters Minhajur Rahman Rahat, Mahfuz Rahman Mishu and Mainul Ahsan, and Shamim Ahmad of Bangle daily Bhorer Kagaj.
This 11 and Bhanu Ranjan Chakraborti, another journalist of ATN Bangla, who is not a member of DRU, were also declared persona non grata at the DRU office, according to a press release signed by DRU General Secretary Sazzad Alam Khan Topu.
The press release reads that those members have spoiled the image of the journalists' community through the attack. It also says the attack had been pre-planned and intended to break the unity of journalists and divert their focus from the journalist couple Sagar and Runi murder case.
On June 24, Jahangir Alam Prodhan, organising secretary of Dhaka Union of Journalists, came under attack after he had called for arrest of ATN Bangla Chairman Mahfuzur Rahman at the human chain organised to demand the arrests of the killers of Sagar and Runi.
Contacted, DRU President Shakhawat Hossain Badsha said the attackers had not felt sorry for what they had done. They instead arranged a press conference following the incident and put the blame on the agitating journalists.
"They even claimed that we (president and secretary of DRU) sought apologies on behalf of the journalists for the attack," Shakhawat added.
Journalists cannot allow anybody to ruin the unity. So for the sake of the movement, they have been expelled from DRU, he said, adding other journalist associations would also remove their members found guilty of the attack.
Sagar Sarowar, news editor at private TV channel Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were found murdered on February 11 in their rented flat at West Rajabazar in the capital.
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