"Its name is Prothom Alo (first light), but lives in darkness," Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told the parliament on Monday while talking about a news of Prothom Alo published on independence day, for which the national daily apologized.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that these people (Prothom Alo) want to bring undemocratic government in this country. Handing ten taka to a 7-year-old child and recording him saying 'I want freedom of food, rice, meat and fish'. Prothom Alo is the enemy of Awami League, democracy and the people of the country. It never wanted stability in this country.
On the independence day (March 26), when a report by Prothom Alo's online version was published on Facebook, a card (photo story) was created quoting day labourer Zakir Hossain.
Although the media house mentioned Zakir Hossain's name in the caption along with his speech "... need independence of food", a picture of a child was used by mistake instead of Zakir, according to Prothom Alo.
The inconsistency was noticed 17 minutes after the post made public and was quickly pulled down, Prothom Alo claimed.
However, the content of widely reached Bangla national daily went viral in social media platforms within minutes.
Prothom Alo also claimed that the report was revised and later published online with the mention of the correction. The daily also stated that no where in the report it was mentioned that the statement was from the child; rather, it was clearly stated that the quote is from Zakir Hossain, a day labourer.
In this incident, the Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman and the newspaper's Savar Correspondent (Staff Reporter) Samsuzzaman Shams (multiple cases) and others were sued under Digital Security Act, 2018.
