Orders on Prothom Alo, Bhorer Kagoj contempt Thursday

The Supreme Court will deliver its judgment on Thursday on a nine-year long pending appeal against the High Court order convicting and fining the editors, publishers and three reporters of Prothom Alo and Bhorer Kagoj for contempt of court for running reports that incumbent additional HC judge Faisal Mahmud Faizee ‘tampered’ with his law examination results. After closing the hearing, the Appellate Division Bench, headed by Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, fixed the date. Barrister Azmalul Hossain, QC appeared for Faizee who stood down following revival of the Supreme Judicial Council to conduct his track record, while Dr Kamal Hossain for the two vernacular dailies. Nine years ago, on March 21 in 2005, the HC convicted and fined Prothom Alo Editor Matiur Rahman and then Publisher Mahfuz Anam and its two reporters — Enamul Haq Bulbul and Masud Milad — Tk 1,000 each, failing of which they are to suffer one month in prison. The HC also handed down similar punishment to Bhorer Kagoj’s former editor Abed Khan and Publisher Saber Hossain Chowdhury. Besides, the HC sentenced Bhorer Kagoj reporter Samaresh Baidya to two months’ rigorous imprisonment and slapped a fine of Tk 2,000 for not only printing the news, but also the photograph of the additional judge in question. The two dailies carried reports on October 30, 2004 that Additional Judge of the High Court Faisal Mahmud Faizee had tampered with his LLB results that he obtained from the Chittagong University (CU) in 1989. Faizee’s father Advocate Mohammad Faiz filed the contempt petition, according to a news agency.