Case filed against Al Jazeera with US federal court

Now, a case has been lodged with the US federal court in Michigan against Al Jazeera over a report, titled “All The Prime Minister’s Men”.

Dr Rabbi Alam, Sher-e-Alam and Rizvi Alam filed the $500 million defamation case on behalf of Juktorashtro Bangabandhu Parishad (Bangabandhu Society of USA) and Bangabandhu Commission.

According to the case statement, the image of Bangladesh has been tarnished with false and fabricated information in the documentary titled 'All the Prime Ministers Men' published by Qatar-based media network Al Jazeera last month.

Al Jazeera's English TV, Al Jazeera's Media Network, David Bergman, Delwar Hossain, Shayer Zulkarnain Sami, Konok Sarwar and Elias Hossain have been charged in the case.

The case was filed on February 22 and got up on the docket on Monday.

Sharing the development at a press conference in New York on Monday, the United States Bangabandhu Parishad President Dr Rabbi Alam said that everyone connected to this defamatory report must be brought to justice.

“Al Jazeera has been carrying out negative propaganda against Bangladesh through false journalism for a long time now. The media recently aired a false, unsubstantiated, low-quality report that reflected the political bias of their political commentator, David Bergman,” Dr Rabbi Alam said.

“Al Jazeera has been broadcasting motivated and false news against the Bangladesh state and army. We are not only rejecting those reports but also announcing to deal with it in a legal way,” he added.

Dr Rabbi also said: “We want to hold Al Jazeera's office in the United States accountable through this case. Besides, we want to boycott Al Jazeera in all kind of social media and also seek compensation for the disgrace that had been inflicted on Bangladesh.”

Earlier on February 17, following the report published on Al-Jazeera, Bangabandhu Foundation President Abdul Malek filed a case in a Dhaka court against four people including Shayer Zulkarnain Sami, David Bergman and Tasnim Khalil on charges of conspiracy against the state and the government.