As an ex-student of BUET, I could not help write something after reading the letter "Students' attack on BUET VC" by Mohammed Rashed (Sat. October 01, 2005. First, I want to say may be we are not living in as "civilised" a world as Mr. Rashed is living, but in terms of "independence of media" we are living in a "faster world". Unfortunately, using the immunity, some people add things or distort stories or completely change the story to have a better sell of news. Some years ago I read a news item with the catchy head line " An actress narrowly escapes death" which had all the details how she was challenged by a notorious student leader and her near death experience. We, the students, knew the real incident which was that a slightly mentally challenged student leader wanted to meet her. For some reason (may be publicity or something) she did not make any clarification. This is just one of my experiences where I was present on the very spot and was alarmed to read the distorted or completely changed story in the newspaper. These days catchy headlines don't attract me, (don't blame me for that)We, the students of BUET, are well aware of our class and we know what the nation expects from us. During my BUET life I had seen such "attacks" (the teachers like to use the same phrase as the media does) on teachers and the subsequent "investigations" which put an end to some "guilty" students' life, who were just trying to make their point to the teachers.
In Bangladesh, the TV with its numerous telefilms, dramas etc has made all the Dhaka University students "lovers" and BUET Engineers either corrupt officers or idle unemployed youth who want to have a wealthy father-in-law. Now the print media is doing its part.
Here, it is a difficult task telling anything against the print media, even against yellow journalism. Because they have the supreme power, people will always believe them.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.