Fifty-five eminent editors and senior journalists have called upon Barrister Mainul Hosein, former adviser to a caretaker government, to apologise publicly for hurling abusive words at journalist Masuda Bhatti and terming her “characterless” at a television talk show on Tuesday night.

Condemning Mainul for humiliating Masuda Bhatti, the journalists' group in a statement on Saturday night said no one has the right to say such things in response to a journalistic query.

When independent journalism and freedom of media are under threat in many ways, such behaviour is not acceptable from Mainul, who himself is a politician and a lawyer, the statement said.

The signatories to the statement include Matiur Rahman, editor, Prothom Alo; Muhammad Shafiqur Rahman, president of Jatiya Press Club; Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, prime minister's media affairs adviser and editor, The Bangladesh Observer; Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher, The Daily Star; Naem Nizam, editor, Bangladesh Protidin; Zafar Sobhan, editor, Dhaka Tribune; Naimul Islam Khan, editor, Amader Notun Somoy; Shyamal Dutta, editor, Bhorer Kagoj; Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief, bdnews24.com; and Syed Ishtiaque Reza, editor-in-chief, GTV.

On October 19, fifteen eminent citizens of the country had also demanded that Barrister Mainul publicly apologise for his remarks.