Sixteen editors of national dailies in a joint statement yesterday appealed to the chief justice to intervene to normalise the situation arising out of a move to put the press and the judiciary into a confrontational state.
Following is the full text of the editors' statement (original statement was in Bangla):
"We consider, the role of the judiciary is very important in the development of democracy in the country. Journalists' community is well aware of this. The mass media in Bangladesh believes in the independence of the judiciary and at the same time freedom of the press is also inevitable for democracy. Mass media is determined to uphold this freedom."
"In the present context, we draw attention to an observation by the Appellate Division comprising Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed, Justice Muhammad Habibur Rahman and Justice ATM Afzal. In the Salimullah versus the state case in 1993, the court said the freedom of the press is recognized by the country's constitution. If the court is criticized it has to be accepted. [Source: 44 DLR (AD) (1992) 309]”, said the editors.
The editors said, Article 39 (2) (Kha) of the Constitution guarantees freedom of the press. The Supreme Court is the guardian of the Constitution. So the mass media firmly believes that the Supreme Court will be active in upholding this Article of the Constitution.

The editors said, “We observe with deep concern that the court has issued a rule upon the editor and joint editor of Prothom Alo over a post-editorial published in the daily, asking them to show cause as to why they will not be charged with contempt of court and penalised. Not only that, the court also issued a rule on two other dailies- Samakal and Naya Diganta- for publishing two reports in this regard. The court also ordered the president and the general secretary of  Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU), who issued statements in this connection, to appear before it on Wednesday”.
“We have noticed that during the hearing of the case in the High Court a number of senior lawyers subjected journalists and the press to slander.  They sought to bring  wholesale untrue allegations against the journalists and malign the whole mass media.  We urge all to refrain from issuing such provocative and misleading statements”, the editors said.
The editors said that at the same time they observed that an attempt has been going on to push the press and the judiciary into a confrontational state, which is damaging for press freedom and the dignity of the judiciary. “We seek the immediate intervention of the honourable Chief Justice in normalising the situation that has arisen”, said the editors in their statement.
The signatories to the statement are: Golam Sarwar of Samakal, Reazuddin Ahmed of The News Today, Matiur Rahman Chowdhury of Manabzamin, Mahfuz Anam of The Daily Star, Alamgir Mohiuddin of Naya Diganta, Moazzem Hossain of The Financial Express, Imdadul Haq Milon of Kaler Kantho, Nurul Kabir of New Age, M Shamsur Rahman of The Independent, Zafar Sobhan of Dhaka Tribune, Shahjahan Sardar of Alokito Bangladesh, Khondoker Muniruzzaman of Sangbad, Noim Nizam of Bangladesh Protidin, Abu Hasan Shahriar of Amader Shomoy, Mozammel Haque of Korotoa and Taslim Uddin Chowdhury of Purbokone.