Six months after publishing a report with a misleading photo, the Bangla daily Amar Desh has finally admitted it was an image of changing the Gilaf (cover) of Holy Kaaba, not of a human chain to protest the war crimes trial in Bangladesh.
The report published in the pro-BNP Bangla daily on January 6 said, “A human chain led by the khatib of Holy Kaaba protests the war crimes trial in Bangladesh.”
The Amar Desh authority made the admission at a press conference organised at the Jatiya Press Club to demand the release of its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman. It, however, claimed its detained editor had nothing to do with the publication of the report.
The photo of changing the Gilaf of Holy Kaaba, a traditional ceremony in Makkah, has been used in the social media and networking sites with misleading information.
The widespread misuse of the photo online gave the impression that it was part of well-planned propaganda against the ongoing war crimes trial and in favour of all accused war criminals, especially Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
Amar Desh never gave any correction to the report.
Without naming Amar Desh, The Daily Star in its investigative report published on March 17 made a mention of the news item as an example of the misuse of pictures in the social media and some newspapers.
Since then, the issue has been widely discussed at different socio-political forums, newspapers columns, and television talk shows, but Amar Desh never officially admitted the truth.
The Bangla daily's statement came a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina criticised Amar Desh in parliament for publishing misleading news reports.
In reply to a question, M Abdullah, city editor of the newspaper, said, "It was an image of changing the Gilaf."
The newspaper's Executive Editor Abdal Ahmed said, "Mahmudur Rahman had no direct involvement in publishing the feature with a photo of the Gilaf. It was published as an article of a reader in a page for expatriates."
M Abdullah said, "A file photo, published with the feature in January, showed religious leaders changing the Gilaf of the Holy Kaaba. Had it been mentioned as a file photo, there would have been no controversy."
He said the “article”, written by Abul Kalam Azad, Middle East correspondent of private TV channel Bangla Vision, had also been published in two other newspapers in Bangladesh.
Top news managers of the daily claimed they didn't have any “evil motive” behind the publication of the article with the misleading photo.
Mahmudur was arrested on April 11 in connection with a case filed for publishing reports on a Skype conversation between former International Crimes Tribunal chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq and expatriate Bangladeshi legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin last year.
The employees of the newspaper termed the closure of the Amar Desh press a move to curb press freedom, and demanded that the government let it open immediately.