Somoy TV CEO, 2 journalists, 3 others sued under DSA in Ctg

The CEO of Somoy TV, two of its journalists and three others were sued under the Digital Security Act (DSA), for broadcasting a report on corruption allegations against a Noakhali court official (nazir).

Mohammad Alamgir, nazir of the Noakhali District Judges Court, filed the DSA case at the Chattogram Cyber Tribunal on May 11 against -- Somoy TV's Senior Reporter Afzal Hossain, its Senior News Editor Manwar Hossain, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Jobaer.

The three other accused in the case are -- Md Jahangir Alam of Green Road in Dhaka, Mashiur Rahman of Bagrakosa village in Sherpur Sadar, and Subel Ahmed from Gazipur Mollabari under Chunarughat Police Station in Habiganj.  

In the case statement, Alamgir said the story Somoy TV did on him was "not true" "fake", "baseless", "envious" and "defamatory".

Alamgir on May 5, filed a Tk 10 crore defamation case against the six at the Noakhali First Joint District Judge's Court. He mentioned that the report had damaged his and his family's reputation.

Somoy TV aired a report under the headline "Adaloter Trityo Srenir Karmacharir Abidho Sampader Pahar (Pile of illegal assets of a third class employee of court)" on February 23.

"The report was prepared based on the charge sheets submitted by the investigation officers of two separate corruption cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission against Nazir Alamgir," Somoy TV's Senior Reporter Afzal Hossain told The Daily Star today.

ACC had filed the two cases against Alamgir for amassing illegal wealth and money laundering, he said.

Afzal said he has no idea about who the three accused (Jahangir, Mashiur and Subel) are and does not know why they were sued in the cases nazir Alamgir filed.