Pabna journalist sued under DSA

Former Awami League lawmaker Azizul Haque Arzu has filed a case against Pabna Press Club Secretary Soikat Afrooz Asad under the Digital Security Act over defaming him in a news report.

The accused only came to know about the matter this week, about two months after the filing of the case.

Soikot is the district correspondent of Somoy TV, the Bangladesh Pratidin and bdnews24.com.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Soikot said the former MP from Pabna-2 lodged the case with the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka on June 9 under section 25(2) of the DSA.

"I came to know about the case a couple of days ago when an official of the Police Bureau of Investigation from Dhaka called me regarding the investigation of the case. On Thursday, I managed to have a copy of the case statement from the Dhaka court," he said.

According to the case statement, the accused defamed Azizul by publishing a news on local web portal pabnamail24.com. The journalist also defamed the complainant on social media, it added.

Soikot, also the editor of pabnamail24.com, said: "I talked to Azizul Haque before publishing the news as per journalistic norms. Reports on the same issue were run by different media outlets, but he filed the case to purposely harass me."

Meanwhile, different journalist organisations in separate messages have demanded withdrawal of the case after the filing of the lawsuit came to light.

"Filing of such a case is a threat to the freedom of a journalist. We demand withdrawal of the case immediately. If the demand is not met, the journalist community will announce a tough agitation," said ABM Fozlur Rahman, president of Pabna Press Club.

Contacted, Azizul yesterday said he was defamed in the news article and that's why he filed the case. He, however, denied the allegation that he sued the journalist to harass him.