Prothom Alo ordered to compensate for misreporting

The High Court today directed the Bangla daily Prothom Alo to give Tk 1 lakh to a female worker of Apex Footwear Limited within a month for publishing a wrong report on her abortion.

While hearing a suo moto rule, the court observed that the newspaper authorities will have to give the money to Hamida Akter from a social responsibility as her image was socially tarnished due to the wrong report run by the newspaper.

The report said Hamida gave birth to a child in a toilet of a factory and the authorities did not grant her leave.

The bench of Justice Qazi Reza-Ul-Hoque and Justice Abu Taher Mohammad Saifur Rahman came up with today’s order after upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) of Kaliakoir upazila in Gazipur submitted a probe report before it saying that Hamida had an abortion accidently as she took medicine of her own.

She did not give birth to any child, the UNO said.

After the daily ran the report on May 10, the HC issued a suo moto rule and summoned three officials of the company before it.

But the daily on the following day published a clarification saying that the report was made on wrong information.

In compliance with the court order, the three officials appeared before the court and said that though the Prothom Alo’s report was wrong, they have taken measures for Hamida’s treatment.

Following their explanation, the court exempted them from the rule.

Considering the newspaper’s clarification over the report, the HC today asked the Prothom Alo authorities to give Tk 1 lakh to Hamida as compensation, Deputy Attorney General Tapos Kumar Biswas told The Daily Star.