Staff Correspondent:

Addressing the media, Information Adviser Mahfuj Alam on Monday said not to manufacture consent in favour of fascism.

“Please don’t manufacture consent in favour of fascism,” he said at a seminar on ‘Murder and torture of journalists during fascist regime’.

Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust organised the seminar at the seminar room of the Department of Films & Publications (DFP) on Monday morning.

“Several newspapers do not write ‘July uprising’. Instead, they write ‘July movement’. They say (the interim government) the government formed after the political changeover. This suggests that over 2,000 people were not martyred. There was a plot through which Hasina was dethroned. No news media can do this,” he added.

Stating that those news media were not closed, the Information Adviser said, “You write, the people will hold you accountable. The families of the martyred also will also hold you to account. How dare you? Everything took place in front of your eyes. Please do not manufacture consent in favour of fascism.”

Politicisation is the enemy of the news media and this leads to the lack of rights for newspersons, Mahfuj Alam remarked.

Information Ministry Secretary Mahbuba Farzana said the government has been working on 266 lawsuits filed against the journalists. An analysis found data about 74 harassing cases. Of those, 29 were filed out of personal grounds. Those could be withdrawn if the government wants so. Apart from them, four are connected to fascist Hasina and the remaining are politically motivated.

Media Reform Commission chief Kamal Ahmed, Dainik Jai Jai Din Editor Shafiq Rehman, Amar Desh Editor Mahmudur Rahman, Prothom Alo’s Executive Editor Sajjad Sharif, Sangram’s former Editor Abul Asad and others addressed the event.

A publication titled ‘Murder and Torture of Journalists during Fascist Regime’ was unveiled at the programme.

The Bangladesh Journalists Welfare Trust publication highlighted the killing of 61 journalists and torture of 3,588 in 15 years.