Gagging media is an old habit of AL: Mahmudur

Exclusive interview of Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman with Prime News

Mohsin Hossain, Prime News || 2013-02-01 Time : 22:15:11

Dhaka: A popular writer of the present time and also acting editor of vernacular Daily Amar Desh -- Mahmudur Rahman is now the most talked about and popular editor of the country running one of the most popular Bangla dailies. The popular editor has been targeted by the Awami League-led grand alliance government for his progressive and more critical role against the government activities and mainly his voice of dissent that also led to numerous harassment of the editor by law enforcing agencies and other pro-government elements. But the warrior equipped with a mighty pen vowed never to give in to the pressure and repression. Rather he promised to play the role of a rebel against all odds, irregularities and oppression, even if the opposition BNP retains power, he will continue his crusade against corruption and irregularities. In the first week of December, 2012 Daily Amar Desh published the verbatim text of Skype conversation between International Crimes Tribunal chairman Justice Nizamul Haque and expatriate Bangladeshi war crimes expert Ahmed Ziauddin on ICT trial proceedings of war crimes suspects. Following publishing of the text, ICT chairman Justice Nizamul Haque had to resign from the tribunal causing a setback to the war crimes trial – a most sensitive issue for the government that led to filing of a sedition case against Mahmudur Rahman. The filing of the sedition case forced the most vocal editor of the country to stay in his office at Karwan Bazar since December 13 to avert arrest and torture in police custody. Mahmudur Rahman has been leading a life of a ‘hostage’ for the last 50 days (Feb 1) under the scanner of plainclothes policemen who constantly keep watch on his office to haul him into police custody for grilling. Besieged by police, the ‘voice of dissent’ editor had a tell-all chit chat with Mohsin Hossain, a senior reporter of Prime News at his office on Thursday. PN: You have been besieged by police and leading a captive life for the last 50 days. But the last resort of the oppressed – the court even had not granted you bail. In such a horrible situation what would you do as next course of action in days ahead? MR: Well, on my part I have nothing to do, because I know I would not be able to get justice from the court even. So I have made up my mind to stay in office as long as I can. The government can arrest me from my office-turned-residence even or if got back to senses and restraint itself then can go for withdrawal of the case. Because the the people of the country and even the government know that it is in fact a false case. The Amnesty International has urged the government to withdraw the case while New York-based Committee to Protect Journalist (CPJ) and Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) issued statement in favour of me urging the government to end my ordeal. So the government has two options right now – withdraw the case or the High Court can grant bail to me. And I have nothing to do other than staying in my office till then waiting for their action. I have spent 10 long months in jail under the rule of this regime which has only 11 months’ tenure left. If I have go to jail again, I got no problem at all and I am mentally prepared for the worst case scenario. PN: Many writers, even pro-government ones, write against the government in different newspapers, but they do not face harassment. But whenever you write something the government got irritated and target you, why is that? MR: The government action proves that Amar Desh has secured a special place among the people of Bangladesh. So the government could be thinking that if other papers write something against the government it is not reaching the mass people as does in case of Amar Desh. Because in the last four years the mass people have seen the pro-people role of Amar Desh in protecting the freedom of press, independence of the country and human rights which was uncompromising and relentless. So the Amar Desh has gained people’s confidence in it. You know Prothom Alo is a quite old and popular paper too, but in comparison to that Amar Desh is a relatively new paper, but as per its Internet focus and readers’ feedback and discussions in blogs over its highlighted issues it is the number one paper. Amar Desh reports usually steal focus of discussions and create ripples, repercussions among the readers most what other papers could not. So in terms of popularity, Amar Desh is the most popular newspaper in the country. Realising the popularity issue, the government is always after the Amar Desh to gag its independent voice as it thinks that if it could muzzle the voice of Amar Desh then all government misdeeds could be covered up and kept in the dark. PN: You have just said that the government is always after the Amar Desh to gag its voice and we have seen in the past that the government forced suspension of publication of the paper earlier. So will the government become successful in its efforts to siege its publication? MR: Look your question has two separate parts – one is whenever the Awami League came to power it tried its best to gag the voice of media. After the country’s independence, during 1972-75 period, the AL kept only four newspapers as its mouthpiece for the party campaign closing publication of all newspapers. This is the basic characteristics of the AL and at that time all eminent editors had to go to jail. For instance Enayetullah Khan, Irfanul Bari, Al Mahmud, Aftab Ahmed – all had to go to jail. Gano Kantho office was attacked and ransacked by BCL bad boys and BCL hooligans even damaged the press. And after regaining power in 1996, Sheikh Hasina-led government closed down the Bichitra, Bangladesh Times and Dainik Bangla. So AL has the mindset of gagging media and voice of dissent which remains all the time due to its Fascist characteristics. And secondly, regarding whether the government would be successful or not – I am viewing it in a bipolar way -- in case of Mahmudur Rahman and that of Amar Desh. I don’t know what would happen to my personal case. And I am not bothered much about that. I have been in jail for long and had to suffer inhuman torture in police custody and still I am not fearful about going to jail or being tortyred again. So there is no problem in that part, but I am really hopeful about one thing that is the government would not be able to gag the pro-people voice of the Amar Desh and in the longer run Amar Desh would emerge victorious. The government misusing its executive authority tried its best to close down Amar Desh though legally there is no scope to close down a newspaper through executive order. But still the AL led government did it, but could not hold it for long. That is the success of Amar Desh, so I don’t think they could come out successful. PN: Then will your struggle keep on going? MR: Insha Allah. PN: Like your ordeal, BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed has also been living a ‘captive life’ in the BNP central office. What do you think about it? MR: This is absolutely an oppression and injustice. You know, several cases have been filed against him and BNP acting secretary general has also been named as accused in all those cases. And what the cases are all about -- car torching and vandalism which is impossible on the part of Rizvi Ahmed as we all know he is not physically well and it is almost imposible to torch or vandalise a car. So it is a proven case that the government does not believe in democracy or rule of law and has been implicating opposition leaders like Rizvi Ahmed in false cases like those. But we are seeing a change as the BNP acting secretary general is securing bail from the High Court and possible after securing bail in another case from the High Court he would win freedom as HC has barred police from implicating him in more cases. That would create a path for Rizvi Ahmed too to secure his release from the ‘besieged situation’. What the government has been doing with Rizvi is really a gross violation of human rights and devoid of democratic norms as this AL led government is in reality is a Fascist regime. PN: There are bigger and more prominent leaders in BNP than Miza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and they also bitterly criticized the government, but are not harassed or arrested. But the government is after Fakhrul again and again, why? What do you think? MR: There are two reasons – first Mirza Fakhrul is not a mere person now, he has turned into a sample or iconic figure as he is the acting secretary general of opposition BNP. So despite presence of so many senior leaders, virtually he is the second man only after the BNP chairperson. So by keeping him detained the government has been conveying a signal to BNP that the government could go any length. Because in the history of Bangladesh politics no party secretary has to suffer such torture and harassment and by unleashing such torture they gave the signal that they could do anything for power. And secondly, Mirza Fakhrul is a politician with very clean image and also having great convincing and persuasion power. He also has a great acceptability among all class of the people. He speaks well and can communicate and make people understand anything very easily. When he was a minister, there was no allegation of corruption against him so the government is envious of his popularity and targeted him as they are fearful about his popularity like that of Amar Desh. The government just does not want to keep any popular figure or popular paper in the country due to jealousy and enviousness. PN: Your paper has been publishing numerous reports on the grand alliance government high-ups’ corruption. Will this trend and anti-establishment role continue if the BNP led alliance voted to power? MR: Of course this trend will continue. In fact we are not saying anything against any government, rather we are taking stance against injustice and oppression. Just go through Amar Desh of the last few days how reports it had published against the opposition parties. BNP City Unit has been failing to rejuvenate its party activities, on this issue the paper has published report against the opposition too which is objective one. Moreover I think news of Begum Khaleda Zia is less covered in Amar Desh and her picture too get seldom coverage though she gets more prominent and very good coverage in other papers. Out main objective is to wage a battle against corruption, protect out independence and uphold national and people’s interest above everything else. We are also struggling to protest human rights of people. As the ruling party has been engaged in hijacking those rights and unleashed a reign of terror through violence, oppression and injustice and we are raising voice against all those injustices and oppression so you are barnding Amar Desh as an anti-government paper. But basically it’s a paper for upholding all rights of people and struggling to play an ideal and ideologically sound role of an independent media and all these role will continue in future too. PN: Will Tarique Rahman return soon in the country? Do you have any sort of contact with him? MH: Actually I don’t have any sort of contact with him, so I do not know whether he would return to the country soon or later. In reality I am now a captive person now, so I cannot say when he will come. Bu I am hopeful about his return and I believe he will certainly come as he belongs to a political family and holds high position in the party and I hope he would continue his politics too. PN: Shifting focus from the politics, lets talk something else. You know right now there are a lot of online newspapers and web portals having a mashroom growth in the country. Now the government has been trying to formulate a policy guideline for the online newspapers. What do you think how would be the policy? MH: I know I’ ve seen. But in reality whatever this government wants to do, all those go against the media. They want to formulate apolicy to control those online media and newsoutlets. The government has also been controlling the TV channels through various means. They also want to control newspapers too. But President Shabudding Ahmed government has enacted a law that ensured the press freedom in such a manner that the government would not be able to close down any newspaper. So the government had been facing hurdles to close down newspapers due to this law. Amar Desk is a glaring example of that. But it is really hard to believe this AL-led government, so if the government tries to formulate any guideline unilaterally, then all stakeholders of Online Media should protest in unison against the move if it goes against their media interests. The Online media should wage tougher movement against any such move in the name policy formulation. PN: Prime News is really grateful to you for giving us your precious time, so thanks a million for your cooperation. MH: Thanks a lot, and thanks to your readers too. Ends/ MH/ AMA/01/02/13