The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. M.S. Haq

The Daily Star, at present, the leading English daily in Bangladesh, appears to suffer - in a sense, among other things, and relative to time, space and other variables - from a disease called media hypocrisy.

I sent a letter titled "Confusing" to four English dailies of Bangladesh including inter alia The Daily Star on 22nd day of June 2008, requesting the honourable editors to publish the letter in their respective dailies. One of the purposes of the letter was to draw the attention of wider public to certain confusing information pertaining to human health matters carried by the daily (I mean, The Daily Star) through an article on its health related page - Star health - on 21st day of June 2008. The letter drew its conclusion with the expectation - The Daily Star will not only strive for People's Right to Know (the front page slogan of the daily) but for People's right to know the right thing at the right time and cost through the foreseeable future.

At least a few of the initial reasons that had prompted me to sending the letter to the dailies in addition to The Daily Star were: one, the outcome of degree of seriousness with which I attended to and dissected those confusing information; and two, the outcome of my concerns over gravity of consequences that might arise out of and in the course of internalising or following through (or both) the pieces of advice based on those information by interested, as well as willing readers and others; all in the greater interest of public health, for example.

Two of the dailies namely The New Nation and The Bangladesh Observer have so far published the letter while the remaining others have not yet published it - one of them is The Daily Star. It will not be out of place to mention here, after the expiry of a reasonable period of waiting, I sent a reminder to The Daily Star in connection with that letter (I mean, the letter titled "Confusing") but there has been no response from them as of writing this letter - 3rd day of July 2008.

At this point in time, the motive behind the newspaper's silence with regard to above matters is not clear to me - the newspaper's silence could be intentional or otherwise. The decision to publish the letter could be within or beyond (or a combination of both) the control of The Daily Star. Factors that could influence or have influenced decision making in relevant areas include inter alia: the non receipt of letter by the daily - I have send though the reminder; space related problems; reputational costs - used in a negative sense; print media arrogance; print media prerogatives; and so on.

Taking into cognizance above and other related factors, a number of questions come into mind: how could The Daily Star afford to remain silent on above matters when it preaches virtually every day "People's Right to Know"? How could the daily afford to deprive the public of knowing the right thing at the right time and cost especially when it comes to things that are of significant public importance and interest? What a contradiction?

While I wish well to The Daily Star through the foreseeable future, it is expected the daily will make further genuine efforts - than those at present - towards liberating the newspaper fully and meaningfully and in a sustainable manner from the disease called media hypocrisy. Let us assist The Daily Star collectively in its effort towards materialising that in say, a timely fashion.

The last word: I will be failing in my duties if do not mention here the elements of media courage (used in a deeper sense), as well as responsibility demonstrated by The New Nation and The Bangladesh Observer when it comes to the publication of letter named - "Confusing". By the way: mainstreaming people's welfare in media transactions (print, electronic, others) has been one of the continuous and formidable challenges for all concerned. One more thing: the media should not feel shy to accept, as required and among other things, its deficiencies or shortcomings in a constructive, result-oriented and lesson-driven manner.