Finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith has sent a clarification regarding his interview which appeared on the first page of Friday’s Prothom Alo under the heading, ‘BB officials involved in fund heist, says Muhith’.
In a letter sent directly to the editor yesterday [Friday], the finance minister said, “It is with much regret that I am obliged to say I do not find my interview published in your newspaper today at all acceptable. Those who usually take my interview are aware that I also look over the draft of the interview and it is never published without my approval.”
“Sohrab Hasan and Fakhrul Islam spent a long time interviewing me on 17 March. Many topics were discussed outside of the interview too and I cautioned them that many of the matters were not to be published. Usually if a pre-scheduled interview is taken, the interviewers give me a draft of the interview to check and the interview edited by me is then published in the media. That routine was not followed in this interview. It was evident in this interview that due to my advanced years, I cannot always be cautious.”
“My humble request to you is that on the first page of tomorrow’s newspaper you publish prominently that the interview was published without my final approval and its contents are not acceptable to me.”
Prothom Alo’s response
We extend our sincerest thanks to the honourable finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith for his interview published yesterday [Friday] in Prothom Alo. The objective of the interview was to inform the readers about the measures taken by the finance minister, that is the government, following the heist of Bangladesh Bank’s reserve funds and also about the overall state of the banking and financial sector. We have not published anything said off-the-record or which he asked not be published.
Over the past 21 months, Prothom Alo has published five interviews of the honourable finance minister, taken inside and outside of the country. The issue of showing him the draft of the interview before publication never arose in the case of those interviews. Even after the interview taken on Thursday, the matter of showing him a draft before publication never arose. However, in accordance to the finance minister’s wishes, his rejoinder is being published ad verbatim.
Abul Mal Abdul Muhith has long been the finance minister, carrying out his duties with sincere commitment. He is a freedom fighter, a diplomat and a writer. Our respect for him will always remain firm. – news editor
Read Full Interview: BB officials involved in fund heist, says Muhith