Judge seeks defamation case against Channel 24 MD A K Azad and six others

A judge has applied to a court for a defamation case against seven people, including A K Azad, managing director of the private television channel Channel 24, over the broadcast of allegedly false and defamatory news.

On Monday (9 November), Md Ariful Islam, former joint district and sessions judge of Lalmonirhat, filed the application as plaintiff in the court of Sefatullah, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Dhaka. He is currently attached to the Law and Justice Division.

The court recorded the plaintiff’s statement and kept the order pending. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Azizur Rahman Dulu, confirmed the matter.

The accused are Channel 24 managing director A K Azad, ‘Searchlight’ programme editor Faisal Alam, executive director Zahirul Alam, head of multimedia Rajib Khan, assignment editor Maksud Un Nabi, senior news editor Tuhin Kaiyum and news reporter Jahid Hossain.

The application states that on 9 October, Channel 24 broadcast a report titled ‘There is a case, but no plaintiff or witness to be found: sensational investigation around a judge’ in its regular news and in ‘Searchlight’, its investigative programme at 9pm.

The complaint alleges that in that report, plaintiff Ariful Islam’s statement was distorted and edited with dishonest intent.

It further says that when Md Ariful Islam was suspended from the Law and Justice Division on 15 October, Channel 24 again published news claiming that the judge had been suspended following its report.

The plaintiff, however, says that on the basis of a complaint by Md Solaiman, former district and sessions judge of Shariatpur, a departmental case was filed against him under the Judicial Service (Discipline) Rules 2017 on charges of ‘inefficiency’ and ‘misconduct’, and he was suspended in the interest of the investigation. Md Solaiman is now a judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Magura.

According to the plaintiff, the claim that he was suspended because of Channel 24’s report is completely false, fabricated and defamatory.

The plaintiff has submitted a pen drive to the court as evidence that his statement was distorted. He has also sought that the court take cognisance of the offence against the accused and issue summons against them.

The court has recorded the plaintiff’s statement and kept the order pending; the case now awaits the court’s order.