Amid ongoing rights abuses unfolding in Bangladesh under Dr Yunus led regime, in contrast to the claim of ensuring justice by the Nobel laureate, BBC World Service has released a 35-minute video and packaged it as a work of investigative journalism.
The claims are startling: Sheikh Hasina authorised lethal weapons against protesters. But the stated substances do not hold ground; rather, they appear to have been riddled with bias and a flagrant violation of the BBCโs own guidelines for independent and objective reportage.ย
The claim is based on an 18-second audio but no trace of the recipient, and holds reasonable ground to be released by her opponents, who even imposed a ban on her party, a glaring testament to staging a rigged trial over the July-August violence.
Use of statements from law enforcement who had already stood accused of suppressing regime dissenters. Reliance on comments from prosecutors handpicked by the regime, despite a proven track record of serving her opponents in court in the past.
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On top of that, a suspicious claim by a third-party organisation that even refrained from using the term โimpossibleโ to rule out the fact that the audio can be manipulated.ย
So, the entire video manifested a clear breach of guardrails associated with objective journalism, serving the purpose of the regime that already stood accused of staging a farce with the nation in the name of judicial process, denying justice to victims of July-August violence.
Referring to the BBCโs claim, Dr Yunusโs office launched a publicity stunt to raise global pressure for the extradition of Sheikh Hasina, not paying heed to rights groups’ call to end ongoing rights abuses, including the abolishment of the death sentence.
Reports show the judiciary has fallen to mob rule, and rights abuses, including a crackdown against dissenters, became the hallmark of the regime. And the credibility of the prosecutors and law enforcement has been questioned by lawyers who even fought legal battles on behalf of the July-August protesters before August 5.
How BBC concealed proven track record of partisan prosecutors
Yet in its article, before the global audience, BBC introduced Toby Cadman as a British international human rights barrister who is currently advising Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT), the court hearing cases against Hasina and others. In the piece, the BBC even incorporated his quote, seeking to justify the recordingโs authenticity by an independent foreign expert associated with the prosecution team.ย
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No wonder a desperate Cadman sought to justify the claim: “The recordings are critical for establishing her role, they are clear and have been properly authenticated and are supported by other evidence.”
But BBC deliberately refrained from mentioning the long partisan track record of Cadman about defending the war criminal-backed party, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, in exchange for money.
A 2011 report by The Daily Star showed, Cadman was one of the three British lawyers hired by Jamaat to shape global opinion in defense of perpetrators of one of the worst war crimes in 1971, an effort anti-war crimes campaigners say crafted to deny justice to millions of victims of war crimes perpetrated by Jamaat in aid of Pakistan army to stop the birth of Bangladesh.
Even in 2023, Toby Cadman โ Co-Head of the Guernica 37 Chambers โ was appointed as legal counsel to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, according to G 37 website.
The website still contains a statement issued on behalf of his client, Jamaat, advocating for the outfitโs fight for the โsake of pluralismโ while the outfit in the same year publicly pledged for the imposition of Sharia law as the future of Bangladesh if it assumed power in future.
So, Cadman holds a historic record of being hired by a political outfit opposed to the Awami League and thereby, several lawyers in Bangladesh already questioned his appointment in ICT tribunal, pointing out potential conflict of interest and possibility to serve vengeance against Awami League and the party chief Sheikh Hasina on behalf of his past client Jamaat.
In yet another deception with readers, BBC deliberately excluded the concerns raised by lawyers, including those who stood for protesters before August over the appointment of prosecutors selected despite a proven record of having allegiance with the Jamaat. Rather in a betrayal with readers, the BBC cited the prosecutors saying they plan to use the recording as crucial evidence against Hasina.
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Letโs dig out what has not been told before the world by the BBC on the prosecutors and the considerable reasons that these prosecutors are not out to conduct a fair trial but to stage a farce against the Awami League.
In the DW Bangla interview, several legal experts, including those who fought legal battles against the Awami League on behalf of the protesters before August 5, condemned the selective appointment of lawyers who earlier either served on behalf of Jamaat leaders or held ranks with anti-AL outfits as politicians.
So, in both cases, the BBC decided to conceal the controversial background of the prosecutors and, at the same time, used their quotes as an effort to legitimise its claim on the audio clip, a clear effort to manipulate the trial process.
How Sheikh Hasinaโs statement taken out of context
BBC also took a quote of Sheikh Hasina out of context on several occasions, conveniently crafted to establish its narrative.
From the 7:45-minute national address by Sheikh Hasina, issued on July 17, 2024, BBC selectively used parts spanning less than a minute to convince the audience that the public address was a call for a crackdown against protesters.
But the script of the entire address is still available on social media shows she clearly expressed her condolences on the loss of lives of protesters and at the same time condemned the use of violence by various political actors under the cover of protest.
In the speech, she clearly stated her commitment to ensure the safety of students, drew a distinction between general students and plots by different political forces to infiltrate the movement to achieve certain goals. She even stated that her government is fighting the legal battle in court to overturn the ruling in solidarity with the demand of students.
But the BBC clearly hid these facts and selectively used two sentences from the speech, another motivated effort to justify the conclusion.
Why 18-second record appears shoddy
On the other hand, counting on what appears to be a shoddy 18-second audio clip purportedly having the voice of Sheikh Hasina, BBC made a startling claim that she ordered law enforcement to use lethal weapons.
First of all, by failing to trace the identity of the recipient of her instruction in the audio, BBC casts adequate doubt on the authenticity of the audio.ย ย
Secondly, the BBC has cited reference of Criminal Investigation Department, Bangladesh as one of the primary sources to authenticate the audio. But in the light of the purge in CID that is now run by partisan officers appointed by the regime and weaponisation of cops in cracking down on dissenters in ten months, including arbitrary detention of journalists, there appears credible ground to question the veracity of CIDโs claim.
Thirdly, BBC claimed to have conducted its own independent verification by sharing the recording with audio forensics experts Earshot, who said it was โhighly unlikely to have been synthetically generatedโ. But in the world of objective journalism, a gulf of difference exists between the careful selection of the phrase โhighly unlikelyโ instead of โimpossibleโ makes such a startling claim of verification hollow.ย ย ย
Furthermore, the depiction of the July-August episode in the video compilation marks another classic biased approach on the part of the BBC and blew out in the face of admissions by several of the protesters and globally recognised terrorist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir let alone a sweeping indemnity passed by Yunus regime to help pro Yunus supporters evade justice.
Whitewashing targeting violence against cops and jail breaks
On top of that, BBCโs projection over use of lethal weapon by cops on protesters is the sole outcome of Sheikh Hasinaโs order is riddled with contradictions as it totally left out the fact that cops were also brutally murdered and hanged, jail breaks happened allowing around 100 top terrorists and militant leaders flee and arms were looted during the protest throughout July and August.
Even the mayhem surrounding Jatrabari police station on August 5, as shown by the BBC, also holds half-truth. Several leading national news portals reported that protesters in Jatrabari for days locked in clashes with cops right from mid-July.
Several coordinators also admitted the use of violence behind the overthrow of the Awami League, shattering efforts to project the protesters as non-violent. The very fact, even depicted by the BBC, that protesters continued to lay siege in front of Jatrabari police station even after the news reached that Sheikh Hasina had left Bangladesh raised question marks over the intention of the protesters.
So, attributing the clash between cops and protesters to Sheikh Hasina even after her departure is preposterous.
Not to mention, Jatrabari remained one of the top hotspots where protesters also turned violent, joined by political actors, as reported by Bangladesh media, but again conveniently ignored by the BBC.
Rather, what the BBC did not include in the report is a pattern that saw over 450 police stations attacked even after her departure, echoing the narrative of the regime enablers.
A BBC Bangla video story even showed Hizb ut-Tahrir official admitting their involvement in the violence, concealing their identity using the cover of general students, a testimony to Sheikh Hasinaโs claim about terror involvement in the protests but missing in the latest documentary.
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