US may think Bangladesh as enemy based on false media reports: FM

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has claimed that through “misquoting” him newspersons have tried to make the Bangladesh an enemy of the US, reports UNB.

“Media outlets including print, electronic and online media published news with false headlines that the USA ‘a warmongering country’, which I didn’t say. The headings had no connection with what I actually said. I think our newspersons have weaknesses and I’ll be happy if they gain maturity,” Momen said.

The minister said this after paying homage to the Father of The Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at his grave in Tungipara on Saturday noon.

“Through misrepresenting the facts, our newspersons have tried to make the US our enemy. Either these newspersons didn’t know Bangla properly, or they have done this for specific reasons. They need to do research why such low quality journalism prevails in the country,” Momen added.

He said he thinks the newspersons of the country have weaknesses in them and they need more maturity while writing and publishing news.

Momen said that the headlines of the reports were false, fabricated and imaginary.

The minister further said that the country’s journalism doesn’t have standard and the newspersons lack moral and ethical values which were present in the past.

“It’s a shame for those newspersons who wrote those false stories. It’s a thing to be sorry about,” Momen said.

On 26 October, Momen was reportedly misquoted by some media outlets after he spoke at the seminar "Sheikh Hasina at the United Nations" organised by the Progressive Columnist Forum of Bangladesh at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital.

Later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) issued a rejoinder, saying that misleading and baseless news quoting foreign minister Momen sent a wrong message to the people and the government of the US.

"Following the programme, some media outlets, including newspapers, online portals and television channels, ran news misquoting the foreign minister saying – 'the US economy cannot function without war, the US is a war-mongering country, war keeps the US economy going, and Taiwan next for the US when the Ukraine war ends," the foreign ministry said.

“The US thrives on war, and the country is always setting the stage for war. Such misleading and baseless news quoting the foreign minister sent a wrong message to the people and the government of the US. This is very unfortunate and unexpected,” the ministry said.

The foreign ministry requested the media outlets to retract the news and run the correct version of Momen's statement.