FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Daily Star editor among 6 honoured for brave journalism

Daily Star editor among 6 honoured for brave journalism

Mahfuz Anam, together with 5 other journalists were honoured for their courage and determination in the face of threats, by the US-based East West Center, at a conference in New Delhi.

Top Bangladeshi editor Mahfuz Anam, who is facing multiple defamation and sedition cases in his country, was honoured for brave journalism by the East West Center, in a show of journalistic solidarity.
The editor and publisher of Daily Star, a leading newspaper of Bangladesh, was among six journalists honoured for their courage and determination "in the face of threats" at a ceremony, during a conference organised by the Center titled South Asia Looking East, in New Delhi last week (Sep 9).
Journalists from India, Afghanistan, Philippines and Sri Lanka, featured in the list that included a posthumous honour for Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickrematunge, who was shot dead in Colombo in 2009.
Anam faces over 70 defamation and sedition cases in different courts in Bangladesh for stories published in his newspaper in 2007 based on information given by the then caretaker government against its political rivals. The editor had regretted the decision to carry the reports without independent verification in a TV talk show in February, triggering the avalanche of cases.
Local and international media and human rights organisations have all condemned the cases, calling it politically motivated and a way to silence the media.
"It has been my experience, in any clash between independent media and a powerful government, the government wins in the beginning. It wins because it has all the coercive machinery of state behind it. But the good news is free press wins at the end,'' said Anam.
"It does so because it is energised by the inalienable right of people to freedom,'' he added.
The six journalists were nominated by the alumni and members of the East West Center's media programmes. The Center is a US-based institution for public diplomacy.
 
Nearly 350 journalists from dozens of nations registered for the conference.
 
The Straits Times editor Warren Fernandez, who is also editor-in-chief of the Singapore Press Holdings’ English/ Malay/Tamil Media (EMTM) group, and associate editor Ravi Velloor, shared their views on current issues at the conference.
 
Fernandez, who spoke on journalists’ perspectives on South China Sea, noted that territorial disputes were about "a contest for power.''
 
"At the heart of this issue is a contest for power...and going forward how this contest of power is resolved would be the big question that we all in the media and elsewhere have to handle,''  said Fernandez.
 
"Singapore is not an interested party in this dispute. We don't have a direct stake in it but we are not disinterested... Obviously we are concerned about how this issue plays out and how it gets resolved and how freedon of navigation and trade continues.''
 
Velloor, who spoke on journalists’ perspectives on political-security links and challenges in South and East Asia,  in his talk said China's policies tend to swing between cold clarity, confusion and carelessness.
 
"Either which way they are making South-east Asia and the rest of the region very uncomfortable,'' he said.
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