New Age editor 'requests' withdrawal of his name from Press Council committee

New Age Editor Nurul Kabir has 'requested' withdrawal of his name from the reconstituted committee of Bangladesh Press Council.

Information Ministry announced a new 12-member committee of Bangladesh Press Council on Monday. The Daily Star Editor Mahfuz Anam and New Age's Nurul Kabir were included as members in this committee.

Nurul Kabir spoke about the matter in a Facebook post after 8:30 pm on Tuesday.

Stating that he did not want to be on this Press Council committee, he wrote in that Facebook post that no one from the government had taken his consent before the publication of the Ministry of Information's gazette.

Nurul Kabir wrote on Facebook: “To my utter surprise, the Ministry of Information, the Government of Bangladesh, has today gazetted my name and, that too, in wrong spelling, as a member of the state's Press Council without my prior approval.

"I was requested by more than one government in the past to be on this Council -- a request that I humbly turned down. But none from the government, or elsewhere, even took the trouble to seek my consent this time."

He further wrote: "Strange. I, therefore, request the authorities concerned, if there is any, to withdraw my name from the list and, thus, kindly oblige me.”

The 12-member committee of the Press Council, in addition to Nurul Kabir and Mahfuz Anam, also includes Obaidur Rahman Shahin, acting president of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Daulat Akhtar Mala, president of the Economic Reporters’ Forum, Md Shahidul Islam, president of the Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) and Dewan Hanif Mahmud of the daily Bonik Barta.

In addition, Shamsul Huq Zahid, editor of The Financial Express, Ramiz Uddin Chowdhury, editor of Dainik Purbokone, and Akhtar Hossain Khan, adviser to the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) were also made members.

Additional representatives include Prof Mohammad Azam, director general of the Bangla Academy, Md Fakhrul Islam, secretary of the UGC, and Zainul Abedin, vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Bar Council.

Earlier, the interim government appointed retired High Court justice Md AKM Abdul Hakim as the new chairman of the Press Council. He has been appointed on a three-year contract. His predecessor, retired justice Md Nizamul Huq, who served under the Awami League government, had his appointment cancelled on Sept 9, 2024.