My attention was drawn to the DS report "Media flayed for ' anti-government stand" carried on January 23. There are two sides to the attack by the BNP on the media. Most of the people believe that the majority of the journalists of the country have personal feelings in favour of the Awami League. The newspaper reports and columns give us this unmistakable feeling. The news on law and order; on corruption and in areas where this government is doing a bad job are carried by most newspapers with an air of sensationalism that goes in tune with the attacks of the AL on the government. There are times when the neutral public is left with the feeling that some of the news carried by the papers were coming right out of the AL party office. For example, the law and order now is bad. It was not that good either under the AL. But reading the newspapers these days, one would get the feeling that people cannot walk out in the streets for fear of being killed, hijacked or mugged. Many of our relatives living abroad have stopped coming back home because of the fear instilled in them by the reports that they picked up from internet editions of the Dhaka dailies. Bad as the law and order situation is, it is not that hopeless.The other side of the issue is the BNP itself. By putting the blame on the media, it is just avoiding the problem for which the party itself is responsible to a large extent. The people elected the BNP primarily on the law and order issue; or ridding our politics of the mastaans and making our politics transparent. The BNP has not only failed on these issues; it is now even refusing to acknowledge these problems. Some members have spoken of BNP's achievements. Of course there have been some achievements but what these members do not realise is that the problems for which the people put them in power with two-thirds majority have increased manifold.
Our appeal is , therefore, to the BNP lawmakers.
It is for self-introspection. Also, please ask your leader to come down heavily on law and order; on corruption and most recently, the attack on the minorities and then the media will be with you.
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