Prothom Alo is the enemy of AL, democracy, country's people: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said the daily Prothom Alo is the enemy of Awami League, democracy, and the people of the country.

"To hand Tk 10 to a small child, to make him tell a lie, to get some words from the child's mouth … what were the words? [We] want the independence of [having] rice, meat and fish," she said during a special session of the Jatiya Sangsad today.

"A seven-year-old child, to hand him Tk 10, and to record his words and circulate it … a renowned newspaper, a very popular newspaper, its name is Prothom Alo but it lives in the dark.

"Prothom Alo is the enemy of Awami League, the enemy of democracy, and the enemy of the country's people. I am saying with regret that they [Prothom Alo] never want to permit any stability in this country."

On March 30, Prothom Alo reporter Samsuzzaman Shams was picked up from his home in Savar. He was sued under two DSA cases -- one filed with Tejgaon Police Station before he was picked up in the early hours, and the other with Ramna Police Station later that day.

He was sent to jail in the latter case on March 31. Prothom Alo Editor and Publisher Matiur Rahman was also accused in the DSA case filed with Ramna Police Station.

Shams was later freed on bail on April 3. Matiur had secured anticipatory bail the day before.

On Independence Day, Prothom Alo ran a report on its website, and while posting the report on social media, it made a "card" with a quote of a labourer named Zakir Hossain. Although the card contained Zakir's quote, it had the photo of an adolescent boy taken from behind.

The mistake was noticed within 17 minutes, and the card was removed immediately. Besides, corrections were made to the report and the news was again published online mentioning the corrections.

Prothom Alo maintains that the report doesn't mention that the quote was of that boy in the photo. Rather, the report clearly says that it was Zakir who said this.