Editorial
Barbaric assault on our correspondent
The responsible must be punished
THE attack by jail guards on Mirza Shakil, our Tangail correspondent, is yet another example of the intolerance and abhorrence shown by various quarters against any conscientious journalistic pursuit to expose their ugly side. This is the hazard that journalists often face in their line of duty entailing investigative and objective journalism. The correspondent's only 'fault', we cannot work out why it exposed him to such a hostile attitude, was that he had taken a photograph of the visitors being harassed.
Anyone having an iota of idea about our prisons and how they are managed would perhaps not fail to see the point of what the DS correspondent was doing. The jail guards made a barbaric assault to silence the man who was just performing his professional duties. Regrettably, what is undermined by such boorish activities is not only press freedom or the rule of law but also human rights.
It is the audacity and the extreme highhandedness demonstrated by the jail guards that we want to condemn in unequivocal terms. The question is: could they have acted on their own without the nod of the jail authorities? The atrocity was committed to cover up a corrupt practice in an organisation that is supposed to be an epitome of law and order. That is cause for concern. The attackers are law enforcers themselves, yet it did not occur to them that it was they who should have been taken to task for harassing the visitors, or they might have been under the impression that assaulting a journalist was something they could get away with. This is sheer arrogance anachronistic to the cause of people's right to know that this government values as is evident by its interest in a right to information act.
Our talk of democracy and all that is decent will be reduced to naught, if the press is not allowed to function responsibly and freely; for, the justice system benefits to a large extent from free flow of information and when journalists can fulfil their obligations to society.
An enquiry committee comprising the jailer and two other officials of the jail administration has reportedly been formed to look into the matter. Going by reports, the jailer apparently did nothing even after receiving the complaint that the visitors were being harassed. Thus, there should have been some independent persons in the committee to ensure credibility of the committee and its outcome. Basically, whoever is responsible for the tyrannical assault must not be allowed to escape justice and be punished for the barbaric act.
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