Using the pretext of spreading political observation, a series of videos by Zillur Rahman, a biased activist yet receives US funds to fight disinformation but spreads a series of tall and scary projections on upcoming US intervention over Bangladesh, raised serious questions from senior journalists and academics who described Zillur “classic rumour mongering campaigner” sought to serve the purpose of the opposition led narrative.
“How many people will face visa sanction from US, revealing classification of professions to fall under sanction”, reads the title of a recent video by Zillur, very much aligned with the appeals of sanction raised by lobbyists hired and deployed by opposition activists.
Pointing out at the syndicated share of Zillur’s video by BNP activists, they also called out the local embassy officials who held official events inviting Zillur in events claiming to fight disinformation.
As the video progresses, Zillur went on to claim that “US is mounting pressure on Bangladesh for the sake democracy”, an observation contested by rights activists and civil society members who contended Joe Biden’s crusade on democracy involving Bangladesh suffered from bias and driven by geopolitical interest.
Already shared massively by a party accused of fanning arson attacks on voters and different radical groups having links with militancy, in the video Zillur predicts “imposition of impending business sanctions, curtailing flow of foreign investment, raking up pressure on human rights, revelation of how many people brought under sanction.”
Importantly, the video came just days after another former US diplomat turned lobbyists for Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), employed by a former press secretary of opposition chief Khaleda Zia, pleaded for US sanction against government officials without any basis, just echoed tune to the opposition that had been involved in arson attacks on voters.
A series of past activities of Zillur on his Facebook shows he has been peddling similar narratives like “an imminent Arab spring type scenario in Bangladesh” with more aggressive claims like “US waking up from sleep”, “has US surrendered to India over Bangladesh”.
Even Zillur even went far ahead to demonise the labourers who field a case against Dr Yunus, as he addressed people in a post to “wake up for Yunus”, a glaring disregard for rule of law.
“Those who introduce themselves as journalists but publicizes no objective content clearly causing trouble for the profession, what we can call classic textbook case of political activism… To describe such hypocritical stance, we are aware of terms like Yellow Journalism and here such terms can be applied”, added Farid Hossain, who has worked with Associated Press and Time Magazine. He made the comments when asked about the emerging trend of activism in guise of journalism.
In a clear misrepresentation of the recently released report by European Union, Zillur claimed the findings described the election as a sham one but in reality, no such wordage can be found in the report.
“How can Zillur disregard to the simple fact almost all European leaders have congratulated the Bangladesh Premier” they questioned.
Chapal Bashar, who worked with another foreign press for decades, pulled up Zillur, calling him “a disinformation campaigner per excellence. spreading disinformation is a crime but peddling such narrative under the cover of journalism is another crime”.
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.
