The Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA), Prime Minister’s Office on November 4 sent The New Nation an angry rejoinder the same day under the headline “Manpower recruitment for BSMIPD project: Allegation of irregularities rose against PD, contractor”.
We were supplied with the rejoinder in Bengali under threat to publish the same in full and so we published the Bengali statement containing version without any change on the 5th November issue. The rejoinder in Bengali said the facts of the report against the project director and contractor are “untrue, baseless and motivated”. It also termed the allegation as ‘rubbish’. But the statement of the project director was inadvertently dropped in our report on November 4.
Anybody who read our report on the subject would have noticed that the facts and source of those facts were discussed without any malice. Yet, we have no hesitation to admit that despite the documents we relied on and facts given may not have been the whole truth.
Under the ethics of journalism it is our obligation to publish the other side’s version without any overt or covert threat. The report mentioned that Beza officials and its workers also demanded investigation into the irregularities alleged.
Public money and public interest are involved. Since the allegations are under heated challenge we urge an impartial investigation. It is not a big matter and compared with other allegations of corruption against government projects the present corruption allegation is puny. The truth should be established not through claim and counter claim but through an impartial investigation. The New Nation’s reputation is also at stake.
