Victimising Shams shows why DSA should go

The timeline of arresting Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman Shams is very telling. According to police documents, a case under the Digital Security Act against Shams was registered with Tejgaon police station at 2:15 am on Wednesday by Syed Md Golam Kibria, general secretary of Jubo League's Dhaka North Ward 11 unit. In less than two hours, members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) reached Shams' home in Savar, accompanied by a sub-inspector from the local police station. The speed of police response to this case indicates that the ruling party man did not bring it on a whim. Now, a case has been filed against the newspaper's editor-publisher, Matiur Rahman.

Remember the announcement made by Law Minister Anisul Huq that the home ministry had instructed the police that journalists would no longer be arrested under the DSA until an investigation was complete? Why was that instruction not complied with by Tejgaon police? This incident is a clear proof that the pledge for the so-called exceptions for journalists has turned the DSA into a law subject to the whims of the powers that be, and works as the sword of Damocles hanging over the media. It is another proof that the DSA has become the government's preferred tool to suppress criticism and free thinking. 

Any rational person following these developments is bound to ask: what prompted Tejgaon police to transfer the responsibility to arrest the accused to the CID? Why did Shams have to be picked up in the wee hours from his home? Was he a flight risk? More importantly, why did the CID not admit taking him into custody even after the confirmation by the accompanying sub-inspector of the local police station? The most disturbing part of the whole episode is the secrecy surrounding his whereabouts. He was produced before a Dhaka court implicated in a different case registered almost 24 hours later, leaving a mysterious gap of over 20 hours since he was picked up from his home by people who identified themselves as men from the CID. All these facts make us wonder whether he was subjected to a dreadful possibility of unlawful abduction or enforced disappearance.

What brought this ordeal to Shams was a simple report that told readers how our working class people viewed the 52nd anniversary of our independence. His report contained nothing subversive, inflammatory or offensive, unless someone believes that everything in the country is hunky-dory and everyone is having a good life. The day he was picked up, a survey carried by the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) found that inflation has had a dramatic impact on the poor's access to food, and 32.38 percent of the people surveyed said they had to put off meals despite hunger. 

Shams' report contained a comment by a day labourer named Zakir Hossain, who said what he needed was independence of having some rice, fish and meat. However, there was some ambiguity in the accompanying graphics. For a social media post, Zakir's comment was imposed on a photograph of a seven-year-old boy named Sabuj, who was seen standing at the locked gate of the National Mausoleum. The post, which is a common practice to draw readers' attention, went viral. Some people either mistook it to be a quote coming from the boy, or deliberately misinterpreted to malign Prothom Alo, which has been seen as a thorn in the government's side for its unflinching commitment to objective journalism. As soon as Prothom Alo noticed the wider scope of ambiguity, it removed the story, amended the headline, dropped the graphic, and added an explanation.

Anyone who read the original report would have realised the fact that the view expressed in the headline or the quote was of the day labourer Zakir, and not of the child. Unfortunately, a politically motivated so-called investigative report aired on a TV channel attributed the quote to the child and claimed that the Prothom Alo reporter falsified Sabuj's identity as Zakir Hossain and paid him money to speak to him. The distortion in the TV story was akin to Fox News of the United States, which is known for its highly partisan stance and accused of spreading misinformation. Sadly, in a highly politicised and almost evenly divided nation, many viewers fell prey to the trick and didn't bother to check the original story.

Subsequent comments by ministers are quite intriguing as they clearly stated that they believed the distorted narrative, which was repeated by more than one channel known to be close to power. The essence of their argument is that the disputed story undermines the nation's independence – as if our national sovereignty is so fragile that it may collapse if one is reminded of the existence of poverty and hunger within our territory. What kind of a nation do we want to build that is unable to draw strength from reviewing its failures? Doesn't it expose the government's lack of self-confidence or low morale? 

The Editors' Council, the top professional body providing editorial guidance to journalists in the country, as well as several other organisations representing editors and journalists, almost in unison, have protested the arrest of Shams and called for amending the DSA and withdrawal of the case. It's heartening to see the unity against the assault on press freedom. 

Kamal Ahmed is an independent journalist. His Twitter handle is @ahmedka1