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Dhaka     Friday   29 March 2024

‘Shamsuzzaman arrested over child abuse and exploitation’

News Desk || risingbd.com

Published: 17:16, 1 April 2023   Update: 22:08, 1 April 2023
‘Shamsuzzaman arrested over child abuse and exploitation’

File photo

Shamsuzzaman, a reporter of the Daily Prothom Alo, has been arrested on charges of child abuse and child exploitation, claimed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry issued a press release in this regard on Saturday (April 1).

It said, “It has been brought to the notice of the Government of Bangladesh that few international media and institutions are claiming that a journalist in Bangladesh, named as Mr. Shamsuzzaman, has been arrested as he wrote about ‘cost of living in Bangladesh.’ This information is totally false and fabricated. This journalist was arrested because of ‘child abuse’ and ‘child exploitation’.”

The press release read, “Many media have been continuously reporting on the cost of living everyday in Bangladesh since the beginning of the Ukraine War which has created global rise of cost of living. No one is arrested due to such reporting. The said journalist was arrested because of child abuse and child exploitation, as he offered ten taka to a 9-year old boy and then expressed his own views in the name of that child. That is surely an act of child abuse and exploitation.  Secondly, he tried to undermine the independence of Bangladesh on the great Independence Day. These acts are surely tantamount to punishable crimes.”

It further said, “The Government of Bangladesh is committed to uphold freedom of expression for all its citizens and the media. However, creating social unrest by undertaking such fraudulent act is contrary to the spirit of honest journalism. The Government of Bangladesh, as a Party to the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), would not tolerate any such act of abusing children. The Government would also not accept any such effort aimed at maligning the great Independence Day of the nation.”

Hasan/AKA