Yet another case against Mahfuz Anam
The Daily Star editor, Mahfuz Anam, was sued in another Tk 100 crore defamation case in Sunamganj on Monday, taking the number of cases against the seasoned journalist to 19 across the country in the past few days.
They cases—either defamation or sedition—were filed for carrying “confusing and defamatory” reports based on information supplied by the military intelligence DGFI during the military backed caretaker regime in 2007-08.
UK-based Bangladesh Awami League leader Syed Abul Kashem, who is a former organising secretary of UK Awami League, filed the case with the senior judicial magistrate’s court of Mohammad Shahidul Amin in Sunamganj.
At a talk show on a private TV channel on 3 February, Mahfuz Anam made an introspective comment about a lapse in his editorial judgement in publishing some reports that the newspaper could not independently verify during the caretaker government’s tenure.
Since then, defamation and sedition lawsuits have been being filed one after another across the country against The Daily Star editor mainly by ruling party leaders and workers. And, the language of the complaints was almost similar, saying that Mahfuz Anam published “false and distorted” stories against AL president and prime minister Sheikh Hasina to serve the purposes of a force that led Hasina to spend days in prison during the regime.
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