Sensational story, dubious ethics
This is an amazing story of sensational accusations made about a leading newspaper in
In a story datelined July 29, 2008, and titled "ULFA has stakes in Bangla media" the Assam Tribune alleged that ULFA whose "business interests were diverse, ranging from driving schools, nursing homes, hotels to garment export houses to deep-sea trawlers,…partly owns or used to own Transcom Media, publisher of the prestigious Bengali daily Prothom Aalo, English daily The Daily Star, besides two periodicals. It is better known as Daily Star Group in
This article is colourfully titled "When the media turns into evil". It is by a writer called Sunita Paul, and is datelined
More than a month later the Assam Tribune article appeared. Thereafter, in the first week of August, Nava Thakuria tried to contact the editor of the
The office of the newspaper was contacted again on the third week of August and this time one senior journalist in news desk responded to Thakuria, but was able to confirm nothing. The latter called the Star office on the fourth week of the private secretary of the editor. Finally the editor Mahfuz Anam responded by email on August 26 saying that he had been on holiday, and that he was was sending a formal protest rejoinder to ¿The Assam Tribune¿ very soon.
On
"I strongly protest the content of the piece, which is full of lies, distortions and inaccuracies," said Anam adding, "Your correspondent admits he based his write-up on a piece in the Internet portal called Global Politician written by one Sunita Paul titled ¿When the media turns into evil¿. Should a journalist write a report purely based on an Internet piece without verifying anything himself?" He added that Barooah made no attempt to contact the office of the Star for their comments, nor try to ascertain the veracity of the Internet piece. Regarding Sunita Paul too his rejoinder said that she never contacted him any of his administrative staff while writing the story to ascertain facts about them.
His rejoinder says,
"Mr Kalyan Barooah selectively quotes Sunita Paul, without verifying the facts, that Latifur Rahman, one of the owners of The Star and Prothom Alo became bankrupt in the nineties when Anup Chetia gave him a "few million dollars to reorganise his collapsed business". These are deliberate canard and outright lies. Mr Latifur Rahman was and is one of the most respected businessmen of the country and has been elected, starting from the nineties, numerous times as the president of the most prestigious business chamber of the country, namely the MCCI (Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry), a post to which he has been recently re-elected.
Transcom, as a company, was not started, as your reporter quotes Sunita Paul, in the nineties but has been in business since early seventies, after Bangladesh was born. Again, it was not Latifur Rahman who brought me to the Star, as claimed by your reporter quoting Paul¿s piece. I am one of the founding directors of the company and was the founder Executive Editor of the paper at the start and became editor at the untimely death of SM Ali within less than three years of the birth of the paper.
About the writer of the Internet portal piece, Sunita Paul, suffice it to say that Paul never contacted me or any of my administrative staff while writing the story to ascertain facts about our company and its finances. To the best of my knowledge she did not talk to any senior staff or any of the other directors of the paper, or any of the other persons who could have given her some facts about The Daily Star and Prothom Alo."
Mahfuz Anam, Editor-Publisher, The Daily Star, Dhaka.
The Assam Tribune editor (cum proprietor) and its New Delhi correspondent Barooah were contacted for their comments on the issue. While Barooah said his editor should be contacted for a comment, the editorial head of the newspaper never responded.
Nava Thakuria contacted Sunita Paul who said the Daily Star editor¿s clarification was nothing but an attempt to save the face of his media group from the attention of anti-terror organizations around the globe. She also claimed that her article was published in a number of international media outlets including two Dhaka based portals and a weekly newspaper within June-July, but even then the editor preferred to remain silent till the last week of August.
She also disputed Anam in the clarification where he argued that there was no media house called Transcom Media in Bangladesh. Anam claimed that the Star was owned by Mediaworld and the Prothom Alo by another company called Mediastar. But Sunita Paul reiterated that Transcom is the owner of all these newspapers including the Daily Star and Prothom Alo (reference www.transcombd.com).
The Global Politician carries several stories on Bangladesh by Sunita Paul. In one of them she makes a passing reference to her expertise on the subject: "Before I go into detail on this topic, let me first give a brief description of how best I know Bangladesh. I know this since much before it was born in 1971. I know the people and of course, know something that many of the Western pundits or analysts will take time to realize."