Gulam Rabbani :
People detained on different charges by the law enforcement agencies in the country face one kind of trial before they are produced in the court. This is called media trial.
Women and men in the country are often produced before the media by the law enforcement agencies after arrest on different charges. And then the accused persons along with the seized items are presented to the media in such a way as if they could be identified as guilty before the trial. In many cases, various offensive adjectives are also used.
The High Court division of the Supreme Court banned such activities in 2012. Even then it did not stop.
A High Court bench on December 11, 2012 issued an order for the first time prohibiting the media parade of the accused or the suspect. The order came in the wake of a public interest litigation writ petition that challenged the police practice.
Another High Court bench on December 10, 2015 issued the second order in settling an appeal filed by a Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh leader against his death sentence for a crime that took place in February 2009.
Again another High Court bench on August 29, 2019 issued the third order in remanding on bail a woman who was detained in the murder case of her husband in Barguna in June that year.
The law enforcement agencies also continue to violate a High Court order that asked them not to make any statement to the media during the pendency of the investigation.
With three court orders for the law enforcers not to hold the media parade of the suspects and one order for the police not to make statements pending investigation that the accused or the suspects have admitted to committing specific charges, the law enforcers often expose suspects to the media before trial.
In many cases the law enforcers bring them before the media with criminal name plates pinned to their chest. All these are not only police trial, but also police conviction of the suspects or the accused before the media.
The High Court in the 2012 order said that such acts of the law enforcement agencies were not only illegal but also unconstitutional.
The law enforcers recently arrested three models and actresses from Dhaka and presented them to the media with drugs before filing of any case or producing them in any court. Some offensive adjectives were also used in their case.
At least 10 such incidents were seen in Dhaka alone in the last two months, where the suspects were presented and described before the media before filing of any case or any conviction. And there were no scope for the suspects to defend themselves.
In all much talked cases of the country it has become a regular trend to present the arrested suspects directly in front of the media or to circulate their pictures and identities. Although the police have their own statements in this case, the detainees are not given a chance to give any statement.
Khurshid Alam Khan, a Supreme Court lawyer, said he doesn’t think there is anything that can be called media trial. But the media men should be more careful in describing a detained suspect before court conviction, said the lawyer adding that in many cases, due to the role of the media, appropriate public opinion is formed.
The lawyer also said that the law enforcers also should maintain the directives of the High Court issued in this regard in presenting a detained suspect before the media so that the detainee should not be socially degraded before a court trial.
Barrister Shanjid Siddique, another Supreme Court lawyer, said, “Before producing a arrested man in a magistrate court, there has been a practice of the police to present the accused before the journalists and provide a summary of the allegations against him. This is often done in a humiliating or derogatory manner which harms the detained person’s reputation to the community. The media then starts inquiry of that person and publishes exaggerating comments about his/her private and family life and even makes an unwarranted assumption of guilt.”
The lawyer also said, “It must be remembered that uder Article 31 of the Constitution no action detrimental to the reputation of any person shall be taken except in accordance with law. The law enforcing agencies must be cautious not to encroach the fundamental rights of an accused and shall treat the accused as innocent until he/she is proved to be guilty.”
