After a video of Nurul Haque Nur and his supporters trying to break the gate to their office space that had been locked by the building’s owner over rent “due for almost 17 months” went viral, the leader of a faction of Gono Odhikar Parishad has lashed out at media outlets, calling them “lackeys of the government.”
“DBC (News) and Somoy TV are just the government’s lackeys,” Nur recently told a public gathering.
He also alleged that Somoy TV is on a mission to “continuously criticise opposition leaders led by the BNP,” according to a video posted on his official Facebook page.
Days earlier, a number of media outlets reported a statement from the building owner, saying that Nur and his supporters “have not paid rent for almost 17 months” for the space, leading him to lock the office.
Later, Nur and his followers tried to break the locked collapsible gate and enter the office, and an altercation took place with the owner.
In a video that went viral, Nur can be seen tearing his own panjabi and later went to a hospital.
Regarding Nur’s verbal attack on the media outlets, Gazi Nasiruddin Khokon, who held senior ranks in prominent national media outlets, said that in a democracy, a thriving media that can criticise both the government and the opposition equally without fear can be deemed a model. Such reaction from Nur in defence of the BNP and the opposition undermines their own commitment to freedom of speech, he added.
If he had proof that these media outlets circulated misinformation and disinformation, he would have served rejoinders against the reportage, the senior journalist said.
“Though Nur frequently criticises the government for curtailing freedom of speech, these attacks on the press clearly expose his hypocrisy,” he said.
Nur had earlier verbally attacked journalists, calling them “slaves and agents of the government” when media carried reports of senior members, who parted with Nur, blaming him of “embezzling party funds” and running the party in “an autocratic manner.”
Yesterday, 21 leaders and activists of the Dhaka University unit of Chhatra Odhikar Parishad, the student front of Nur’s party, resigned en bloc protesting “immorality and policy violations by its central leaders.”
