Bangladesh journalist denied bail after arrest for publishing ‘false’ news about high food prices

Shamsuzzaman Shams stands accused of ‘smearing the government’

Bangladesh journalist Samsuzzaman Shams of Prothom Alo daily newspaper has been denied bail a day after his arrest. Screengrab (Media News24 / YouTube)

A journalist at a major Bangladesh newspaper has been denied bail a day after his arrest over “false” news about food prices and is facing a possible 14-year jail sentence.

Shamsuzzaman Shams of Prothom Alo daily newspaper was charged for writing a “false” news piece on high food prices.

His story was published in the daily on 26 March and after the piece went viral on social media, he was arrested from his home by the authorities on Wednesday morning.

Bangladesh’s home minister Asaduzzaman Khan told the reporters that the journalist was questioned by police for a “false story”.

“A case has been filed against him,” the minister reportedly said.

Shams has now been charged under Bangladesh’s Digital Security Act which rights activists and lawyers in the country claim is used as a tool to silence the critics of the government.

On Thursday, he was denied bail for charges of attempting to smear the government with “false news”.

Supporters of the ruling Awami League in Bangladesh also criticised the paper for running the news piece.

BBC reported that editors at Prothom Alo have stated that they stand by the article in question penned by Shams, which featured Bangladeshis talking about their lives and the high price of food in the country.

Media Freedom Coalition in Bangladesh – an initiative by some Western countries in Dhaka – also issued a strong statement on the “reports of violence against and intimidation of journalists including violence directed at reporters covering the Supreme Court elections, an assault on the brother of a London-based journalist for Al-Jazeera, the attack of a Dhaka Tribune photojournalist and the recent reported detention of a Prothom Alo journalist”.

The coalition urged the government to investigate each of these instances “promptly and impartially”.

The Dhaka Tribune reported that Prothom Alo editor and publisher Matiur Rahman, an unnamed assistant cameraman, and others were also sued in the same case.

The piece by Shams was widely shared. But when the news piece was shared on Prothom Alo’s Facebook page, it mistakenly used a wrong photo of a person who was quoted. The news drew criticism as the newspaper used a child’s photo with a quote from a 40-year-old labourer named Zakir, identifying the child as Zakir, according to the local media reports.

Prothom Alo withdrew the report within around half an hour and issued a correction later in the day, saying there was an inconsistency between the headline and the accompanying photo.

“Once we realised the error, we immediately pulled it down and issued a clarification under the (amended) report,” Sajjad Sharif, the paper’s executive editor was quoted as saying by the BBC. He added that the paper stands by the news. “The quote of the labourer on the food price was genuine.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also issued a statement and called for the “immediate release” of Shams “who is facing a possible 14-year jail sentence on spurious charges in reprisal for his reporting”.

“Make no mistake, the arrest of Shamsuzzaman Shams and the case filed against Matiur Rahman have no legal basis and are clearly an act of intimidation by the government towards all journalists,” Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk said.

“We demand that the charges filed against them be dropped at once and, with less than a year to go to parliamentary elections, we call on Sheikh Hasina’s government to respect journalistic pluralism and independence, or else these elections will lack all democratic credibility.”