The latest move by Zillur Rahman, who hosts a talk-show but introduces himself as a researcher, to fight out disinformation suffered a blow as several analysts believe the presence of such a well exposed peddler of disinformation brings to light the willful ignorance of embassy officials to act on their stated claims.
Videos on his Facebook pages, clips of his talk shows, his past attitude to disregard questions of journalists, an attitude to stay above accountability and defending faulty research-based works are pointers that blew out the cover of his neutrality long back.
Recently he wrote an op-ed where he stressed on fighting disinformation to flourish democracy but the column was riddled with inaccuracies and ignored outright opposition backed lies.
But the latest controversy surrounding him flared up over his involvement with the US embassy in a project to create awareness in the fight against disinformation.
On February 11, the embassy from verified handle posted a photo that shows a number of personalities including Zillur among others claiming “the US Department of State us teaming up with Center for Governance Studies to share best practices with journalists, train fact-checkers and raise awareness..” and the stated objective is to find out “reliable sources” in age of information warfare.
Importantly, the meeting came just a day after Zillur wrote an opinion piece in a leading daily that completely ignored the pack of lies peddled by Bangladesh Nationalist Party including threatening journalists and faking credentials alongside the politics of denial to hide involvement by party cadres in series of arson attacks, killing of cops and justification for blockade.
A look at his facebook content even revealed a series of misleading content where he even glorified the Arab Spring and predicted a similar type of resurgence in Bangladesh.
“In Arab and Africa, many countries witnessed mass resurgence resulting in a change in government. Western countries described these revolutions as the Arab Spring. Will a similar upsurge in Bangladesh be called Bangla Spring”????, reads a caption in a status posted on his facebook where he can be seen giving a video speech.
Political scientists say “how can someone who claims to fight the menace of disinformation spread such half-truth driven remarks on his own from his facebook. The origin and impact of the Arab Spring is a well contested topic, surely not a settled issue just like what Zillur claimed. This status can be a template to justify why his inclusion to fight disinformation is controversial”.
Zillur’s private organization CGS has long been exposed for packaging “faulty research work riddled with sample bias” as objective one while the same center under the pretext of arranging dialogue diplomats threw questions loaded with deliberate political connotation.
“No country in the world is perfect. In the United States, are diplomats from other countries allowed to make such observations regarding its internal matters?” – questioned an eminent teacher at Dhaka University.
Two media outlets even reported Zillur receiving funds from BNP’s media cell coordinator Zahiruddin. When asked for comments, Zillur locked in a spat with journalists to defend his stance, without explaining or justifying his motive.
Months before the election, Zillur went after the press and even refused to answer questions to journalists over his involvement in spreading disinformation. “I don’t care”, was his infamous response to questions from some journalists who inquired about his double standard approach: pretend to be independent but promote politically motivated content.
And without clarifying his stance, Zillur also dodged questions about income sources with regards to his luxurious lifestyle and how expenses were met for CGS. “We are not typical NGOs” he replied without elaborating what are special criterions that set his organizations apart.
Asked over the rationale behind such platforms, a visibly enraged Zillur told a press briefing, “I don’t care, actually… This is not the time to care about these things. If you care about all these things, you can’t proceed”.
On the financial sources required to arrange and run his NGO, CGS, Zillur decided to keep the sources undisclosed but replied, “We earn money from various sources… we are not a typical NGO.”
Another round of criticism over Zillur interviewed one self-confessed killers of country’s founding father in an attempt to circulate accounts in justification of 1975 midnight massacre, what journalists said “unthinkable in any civilized democracy where killer of founding father, who is leading a fugitive life to evade justice, can be allowed to circulate his narrative instead of facing justice”.
