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'Journalists Are Dogs'

Apologise, now

Journo leaders hit out at Shamim Osman for his vile talks

Staff Correspondent
The indecent comments made by ruling party lawmaker Shamim Osman about media and journalists are an expression of his meanness, which ultimately dents
the dignity of parliament, journalist leaders said yesterday.
Condemning the remarks, they called upon Shamim Osman to offer an apology and withdraw the comments immediately.
On Thursday, the controversial lawmaker elected from Narayanganj-4 said: "Journalists are dogs. In our childhood, affluent people used to keep pet dogs ... Later, people, who gained wealth, started to keep media. These |media| are Alsatian dogs..."
"Say, for example, Shah Alam of Bashundhara. He has four newspapers ... Kaier Kantho, Bangladesh Pratidin, an online newspaper and an English newspaper [the daily] Sun or something. Babul has a newspaper, and is getting one television [licence]. Mr Azad... he has a newspaper, he will need one more. He took out the licence for a television channel. There is only one newspaper ... and it is [the daily] Ittefaq," Shamim Osman had told reporters at Narayanganj Club.
"Salman ... he is a thief ... a big thief. He stole Tk 23,000 crore. He has a newspaper, and now has a TV channel. Whenever 1 see him, I call him thief... thief... thief."
Nurul Islam Babul is the chairman of Jamuna Group and daily Jugantor and Jamuna TV are media houses of the group. AK Azad is the chairman of Ha-Meem Group that owns daily Samakal and Channel 24. Salman F Rahman is the vice-chairman of Beximco Group which owns English daily The Independent and Independent TV channel.
Shamim Osman said, "If your owner asks you to write for Shamim Osman, you will do it."
When a reporter pointed out that it was not right that all journalists do whatever they were asked to do by the owners, and that they could leave their jobs in such cases, Shamim had said, "Where will you go? Yes, you can leave the job, but if all the owners speak the same language, where do you go?"
He had said, "All of them write against me. I don't say anything. Let them write. I know where they come from. They have come to the higher stage from averylow level."
A statement issued by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) said in recent times, leading political leaders in and outside the Jatiya Sangsad have made some appreciative comments about the Osman family, which unfortunately are not proved through what Shamim Osman has said.
"Rather, the words Shamim Osman pronounced, comments he made and his body language have brought his education, taste, politics and the family culture under question," said the BFUJ statement
BFUJ President Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Secretary General Abdul Jalil Bhuyian, Dhaka Union of Journalists President Altaf Mahmud and General Secretary Quddus Afrad and other journalist leaders from Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Bogra, Dinajpur, Jessore, Narayanganj, Mymensingh and Cox's Bazar issued the statement in this regard.
They said they expected the Speaker of parliament would appreciate the fact and take effective initiatives to uphold the parliament’s dignity.
While making the remarks, Shamim Osman said that the prime minister was his guardian. "This was embarrassing for us," the statement said.
The journalist leaders said the initiatives taken by the PM and her government for the welfare of the journalist community would now come under question due to the indecent remarks made by a member of the ruling party.
They called upon the PM to play her due role so that Shamim Osman apologised to the journalist community and withdrew his comments.
Asking Shamim Osman to learn from history, the journalist leaders said journalists play their professional role ignoring intimidation and they unmask evil forces and godfathers. Things would not be different inthecaseofNarayanganj, they said.
They also advised Shamim Osman to maintain decency and good manners and urged all to ensure an environment where the