‘Punished for journalism’

What should have been a routine day for a campus correspondent turned into a harrowing ordeal for Mohammad Iqbal Monwar.

Monwar is Cumilla University campus correspondent of Bangla daily Jai Jai Din.

While he should have been attending his classes on campus, Monwar, also a master's student of English department at CoU, is now wandering the Dhaka streets and contemplating his next move after being suspended from the university. 

His crime? Journalism.

Monwar was suspended on August 2 after his news report on the CoU vice chancellor's comments at a programme was published in the Bangla daily on July 31.

According to the suspension order issued by the CoU acting registrar, Monwar stands accused of "intentionally distorting the VC's statement and disseminating it with misleading information".

Monwar refuted these allegations.

"I merely fulfilled my duty as a journalist to deliver the news without any malicious intent," he told The Daily Star recently.

He claimed that the university failed to provide him or his newspaper with a show-cause notice or a rejoinder to present their side of the story.

HOW THE CONTROVERSY BEGAN

The report was based on VC Prof AFM Abdul Moyeen's speech at the freshers' reception in the Marketing department of the university on July 31.

"I want my students to have critical thinking ability. I want them to contradict me. Just memorising textbooks won't help you to secure jobs," the VC said.

Then he went on to explain the relation between corruption and development, as an "example" to see "whether the students have counter arguments to refute him".

This newspaper has obtained the audio clip of the VC's 51-minute speech.

On the same day, a report titled "Corruption is the reason for development in Bangladesh: CoU VC" was published in daily Jai Jai Din, detailing some remarks made by the VC during the programme.

According to CoU authorities, the words attributed to the VC in the report were taken out of context while he was merely trying to encourage the students to develop cognitive thinking and critical thinking ability.

Then on August 2, Monwar was suspended from the university.

"I was served a letter on August 2 stating that I was suspended for violating university's discipline. But I didn't get a show-cause notice. I didn't get a chance to defend myself," he told The Daily Star recently.

"Usually even in case of severe allegations, first the university's disciplinary committee conducts an investigation, and recommends the university syndicate to take actions if the allegations are found to be true," he said.

"However, in my case, everything was done with secrecy, and promptly," he claimed.

Monwar said if actions were deemed necessary, those should have been taken against him as a journalist, not as a student.

According to journalistic norms, the university should have sent a rejoinder to his newspaper and awaited their response before taking any punitive measures.

However, no such rejoinder was received from the university authorities, and instead, CoU's Marketing department issued a statement protesting the news report, he added.

Sohel Haider Chowdhury, news editor of Daily Jai Jai Din, said, "We didn't receive any rejoinder from the university authorities. We stand by our news as we have published exactly what the VC said."

"He (VC) just expressed his rage by suspending the student for publishing this news. We will provide all types of support to our colleague," he added.

Contacted, VC Prof Moyeen said, "We decided to suspend the student after a meeting on August 2, where all the six deans of the university, pro-VC, treasurer and proctor were present."

Asked if the university can take such a decision so promptly, he said, "The VC can take such a decision based on recommendation of the authorities concerned to maintain peace and discipline in the university."

"The students were enraged by such distorted news published by the newspaper. Hence, we made a decision to suspend him because it was needed," he added.

"A four-member body, consisting of four syndicate members and the proctor, has been formed to investigate the matter and asked to submit the report within seven working days [August 10]," the VC also said.

Meanwhile, the authorities of CoU's Kazi Nazrul Islam Hall issued a notice on August 3 asking Monwar to vacate the hall.

"I received a letter from the probe body asking me to appear before it within August 10. In the letter, it is stated that the VC's speech was intentionally distorted to harm the reputation of the university," said Monwar.

"Can a probe body come to this conclusion even before starting their investigation?" he asked.

Journalist organisations, university teachers and rights bodies continue to protest Monwar's suspension.