The Bangladesh Police Service Association (BPSA) has voiced a strong note of protest over the recent trend of publishing partial, biased and fake reports on former and incumbent members of the Bangladesh Police by some print, electronic and social media.
In a release issued on Friday, the association urged greater caution and proper adherence to journalistic ethics from the media while publishing any report on the police force in the coming days.
Numerous reports have been published by the media in recent times regarding the wealth of former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Benazir Ahmed and his family, and former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia and his family.
Benazir and his family left the country on May 4 this year after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) started investigating his assets.
In this context, the BPSA had held a meeting on Thursday in the police headquarters auditorium. Some also demanded legal action against those involved in publishing partial, biased and fake news reports.
The BPSA notification came a day after this meeting.
According to the notification, some media outlets are publishing derogatory negative news against some police officers for personal gains and protecting their own interests, which is against the principles of journalism.
Under such circumstances, it is not unreasonable to raise questions for what reason, to serve whose objectives, and to implement whose mandates, some media are indulging in such slander against the Bangladesh Police.
Mentioning that the police have always been following the policy of “zero tolerance” against corruption, the notification added that no exemption is given to any police personnel if the corruption charges against them are proved.
Such personnel not only face departmental action, but legal action as well.
The notification also said that the media is the mirror of society. Constructive criticism from the media is always welcome. But the BPSA wants to protest against the publication of any partial news in the media.
Stating that the media has a responsibility to the reader to publish impartial news, the BPSA pointed out, “For some mysterious reason, a section of the media has very cleverly tried to frame the police controversially, which can be considered bad journalism, which in turn suppresses the voice of honest journalism.
Such one-sided behavior of the media amounts to misguiding the readers.
Such misreporting appears to be an attempt to demoralise the honest, dedicated, professional and patriotic members of the police, which may adversely affect them from discharging their duties professionally, the release read.
The BPSA says such propaganda should be considered whether it encourages terrorists and is a ploy of an anti-national conspiracy.
According to the notification, the anti-freedom and anti-nationalist gangs and their fugitive cyber-terrorists abroad are constantly publishing false and exaggerated information on social media to defame the characters of police officers.
In imitation of them, recently some media have been purposefully publishing defamatory and negative news about incumbent and former members of the police, which appears to be a nefarious intention to tarnish the police image, reads the BPSA release.
