Charges pressed against 2 JMB men, another

Detectives yesterday pressed charges against three people, including two operatives of outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), in tailor Nikhil Chandra Joardar murder case.

Ashraf Hossain, investigation officer of the case and also a sub-inspector of Detective Branch of police, submitted the charge sheet before a judicial magistrate's court, sources said.

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The charge-sheeted accused are JMB members Moslem alias Suman, who is behind bars, and fugitive Motiar alias Hridoy. The other accused, Nazmul Hasan, rented out his house to the JMB cadres at Elenga in Kalihati upazila.

The name of Nazrul alias Bike Hasan was dropped from the charge sheet as he was killed in a "gunfight" with police in Rajshahi.

According to the case, three youths with a motorcycle appeared in front of Nikhil's tailoring shop at Dubail Bazar in Gopalpur municipal area on stressed the importance of good journalism and "good media behaviour", adding that laws should take a multi-faceted approach.

The Straits Times' Managing Editor Fiona Chan, who chaired the workshop on fact-checking, said her group called for a regional task force to verify rumours in major events such as elections. Her group also advocated equipping journalists with the technology and tools to fact-check falsehoods, involving university students in fact-checking projects as part of their course module and launching campaigns to raise awareness on the scourge of misinformation.

Hong Kong University lecturer Anne Kruger, who led the workshop on news media literacy, said beside making this a key part of the education curriculum, there is a need to reach out to the elderly who are more vulnerable to fake news. This could be done through community ambassadors and role models, and tapping platforms such as Whatsapp, which older people typically use to access and share messages and social media links. 

The two-day event brought together nearly 200 policymakers, media practitioners and technology experts publishers to examine the rise of misinformation and explore initiatives in Asia to fight its spread and improve media literacy. Participants committed to work on implementing some of the event's proposals, which they will review at the WAN-IFRA's Digital Media Asia conference in Singapore in November.