Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman sued under DSA

The Daily Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman has been sued under the Digital Security Act (DSA) over a news report published on the Independence Day on March 26.

Abdul Malek, a lawyer, filed the case with Ramna Police Station in Dhaka on Wednesday night. Inspector Abu Ansar was assigned to investigate into the case.

Some unnamed people including reporter Shamsuzzaman Shams and a cameraman were also made accused in the case.

Confirming the matter, lawyer Malek said, he filed a First Information Report (FIR) against them.   

Earlier, a man named Syed Md Golam Kibria filed a case against the reporter Shamsuzzaman with Tejgaon Police Station in Dhaka under the DSA over the news report. 

According to the FIR filed in the case, the report was published on the website of the Daily Prothom Alo with a photo of a child holding flowers in hands in front of the National Mausoleum at Savar. Later, the daily shared the news on its Facebook page.

Read more: DSA case filed against journalist Shamsuzzaman

The report said that the boy’s name is Jakir Hossain and he said, “What will I do with the independence if I don’t have rice to eat? I sweat when I go to market, we need freedom of fish, meat and rice.”  

The news reported by Shamsuzzaman went viral on social media and thousands of people took screenshots and shared those on social media which tarnished the image of the country and triggered criticism at home and abroad, said the FIR’s statement.  

Though the boy was named as Jakir Hossain in the Prothom Alo report, private television channel Ekattor in an investigation found that the boy’s actual name is Sabuj Ahmed. He is the son of a mason of Kurgaon Para in Savar and student of class one. He sometimes sells flowers after school, it said.

The Ekattor report said that the boy did not say anything like “What will I do with the independence if I don’t have rice to eat? And the reporter took his photo after giving him Tk 10.