One of the most important elements of investigative journalism is the secret gathering of information. That information is collected in many ways. Sometimes by source, sometimes by bait. However, no one wants to steal for investigative journalism. Another serious crime is to promote it as investigative journalism if caught stealing.
What did Rozina Islam do in the Secretariat that day?
Video footage from the secretariat showed Rozina Islam entering the health secretary’s PS room directly without permission from anyone. After about ten minutes, the policeman in charge of security went to the room out of curiosity and Rozina Islam wanted to escape from the room.The on-duty policeman stopped him and brought him back to the room. At that time Rozina Islam threatened him. Rozina Islam was then taken to the secretary’s room. Then her mobile phone was checked with the presence of ministry’s other officials and found pictures of various confidential documents from her mobile phone. But when they wanted to check her bag, she quickly ran to the toilet and tried to hide the stolen documents throw away in the commode. Different parts of her body and her accompanying bag, various important documents were recovered which she stole without permission. Then Rozina Islam pretended to be ill. But after being caught stealing in this way, and could not get through with various acting and threats, then she admitted her mistake and tried to get through with signing a bond.
The Prothom Alo authorities can also understand specified crimes done by Rozina Islam. For this reason, the Prothom Alo authoriry tried to free Rozina Islam by going beyond the legal processes. But failing that, the Prothom Alo authority resorted to the tactics of spreading news that Rozina Islam was being harassed for reporting aganist corruption. This is clear from an leaked audio of Sheikh Sabiha Alam, a colleague of Rozina Islam and a senior reporter of Prothom Alo.
Is Rozina Islam collecting or stealing information?
Rozina Islam, a senior journalist at Prothom Alo, entered the room in the absence and without permission of an official from the Ministry of Health and move away some important and confidential documents. What Rozina Islam has done is clearly theft according to the Bangladesh Penal Code. Since she has stolen important state’s documents, the Official Secrets Act applies equally.If gathering information for journalism was the real purpose of Rozina Islam, then in these cases she must have collected information through sources. All investigative journalists around the world collect this information through sources or baits. This is the customary rule. In this case, Rozina Islam must have had a nefarious intention, so she did this. That is why she wanted to give a bond by clearly admitting that he had made a mistake.
Could Rozina Islam be released on bond? If a person makes a mistake for the first time, he/she will be released on bond, provided that the same crime is not repeated. Rozina Islam had earlier been caught stealing information from the Ministry of Shipping in a similar manner. Then Rozina Islam was released with a bond of service. An official of the Ministry of Shipping has described that incidents in the following way..
Even after committing similar crimes in the past, Rozina Islam has repeatedly violated the previous bond conditions by repeating the same crime. Therefore, to release her without filing a case against her would be tantamount to releasing or indulging the offender.
Can journalism and business be done together?
According to the principles of journalism, issues that involve the interests of journalists have to be avoided. In this case, Rozina Islam used to report about the Ministry of Health on the one hand, and on the other hand, she used to help her husband get a contract job in the Ministry of Health. This is clear from a conversation between Rozina Islam’s colleague and Prothom Alo’s senior reporter Sheikh Sabiha Alam.
The law applies equally to everyone. The law follows the rules, not the emotions. But some very enthusiastic people are making various comments and demands on the issue of Rozina Islam without considering the whole incident. Those who speak so much for Rozina Islam today, if the same allegations were made against an ordinary citizen, would they have reacted in the same way? Therefore, if Rozina Islam has committed a crime, she will be punished according to the law, if she is innocent, she will be released, that is justice.
But indulging in crime in various ways, on the one hand, disrupts justice, on the other hand, gives birth to another crime. It is expected that the media and civil society will react equally to all citizens if they commit similar crimes.
