Amar Desh publication suspended

The authorities of Amar Desh have decided to suspend publication of the daily after the government obstructed printing of the newspaper.

Amar Desh executive editor Syed Abdal Ahmed at a press briefing at the National Press Club on Monday afternoon said that the government did not allow publication of the newspaper in violation of a Supreme Court order. 

The government illegally locked the printing press of the newspaper on Thursday after arrested its acting editor Mahmudur Rahman and again barred printing of the newspaper after they had made a temporary arrangement for publication of the daily from Al-Falah Printing Press, he said. 

lawyer Saleh Uddin told reporters the Printing Presses and Publications  (Declarations and Registrations) Act 1973 stipulated that the district magistrate must be informed about an change of press for printing a newspaper in 72-hours after such temporary arrangement ‘but we informed [the DC office about the matter] in 24 hours and we have a copy of it.’

The deputy commissioner on April 12 told the media that he had received the application ‘but did not give permission for printing of the newspaper’, he said. 

The lawyer said the act did not stipulate that permission was required in such cases, ‘only informing the DC office about the matter should be enough’. Accordingly, the lawyer said, the newspaper authorities had applied to the DC.

He said the law did not make it obligatory for the press authorities to take permission from the DC to print the newspaper.

Speakers at the briefing said that the government had committed a contempt of court by violating a Supreme Court directive in 2010 which had allowed the daily to continue its publication.

Earlier, the editor and publisher of daily Sangram, Abul Asad and Amar Desh publication division’s acting chairman Mahmuda Begum were sued for illegally printing Amar Desh from Al-Fallah printing press.

Assistant commissioner Nasrin Sultana, also an executive magistrate (publications) of the deputy commissioner’s office in Dhaka, filed the case against them for illegally printing, publishing, exhibiting and selling Amar Desh on Friday and Saturday.

The case said that Abul Asad and Mahmuda Begum, also mother of Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman, had been publishing the newspaper in violation of the sections 7, 32 and 33 of the 1973 act.

Mahmuda Begum filed a petition with the High Court seeking anticipatory bail on Monday and the court posted the hearing for today.

Ramna police officer-in-charge Shah Alam, said that the police had also arrested 19 staff members of Amar Desh during a raid at the Sangram press at Moghbazar and confiscated some 6,000 copies of Amar Desh on Saturday night.

The 19 people also had been shown arrested in the case for being illegally involved in publishing the newspaper, the police said.

Metropolitan magistrate Shamsul Arefin on Sunday sent 19 press staff of daily Amar Desh to jail after rejecting their remand and bail petitions.

According to the 1973 act, a newspaper requires permission from the district magistrate if it wants to print its copies outside the designated press but they did not take the permission, said Dhaka district deputy commissioner Sheikh Yusuf Harun.

But Amar Desh news editor Zahed Chowdhury said they had sent a letter to the DC office on Friday over publication of the newspaper from Al-Falah press.

He said they did not get permission but sent the letter seeking the permission that was received by the DC office.

Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman was arrested on April 11 on charges of sedition and for unlawfully publishing an alleged Skype conversation of a former chairman of the International Crimes Tribunal.

He was remanded in custody for 13 days for interrogation.

The police locked the Amar Desh press and seized a computer and some documents. (Source)