Discontent has arisen in Kotchandpur, Jhenaidah, over a scheduled meet-the-press session between newly arrived Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Shamim Hossain and local journalists. Journalists who arrived on time for the session, only to find the UNO absent, expressed anger and walked out of the meeting.
The incident occurred Thursday, August 27, afternoon in the conference room of Kotchandpur Upazila Parishad.
According to reports, Shamim Hossain joined as Kotchandpur Upazila Nirbahi Officer on August 23. On Thursday afternoon, the relevant office called local journalists by phone to inform them that a meet-the-press session with the newly arrived UNO would be held at 3 p.m.
As scheduled, journalists arrived at the conference room before 3 p.m. and waited. After a long wait, the UNO still had not appeared in the meeting room. After waiting until 3:22 p.m., journalists saw the upazila agriculture officer and other agriculture office personnel beginning to arrive in the same conference room. It later emerged that an agriculture department meeting was scheduled to be held in that same room at 3:30 p.m.
Angered by this, the journalists present left the conference room. Shortly afterward, at around 3:24 p.m., UNO Shamim Hossain arrived at the meeting room.
Kotchandpur Upazila Press Club general secretary Mostafizur Rahman Apel said: “Since the UNO did not show up for the meet-the-press session at the scheduled time, journalists expressed their anger and boycotted the meeting.”
S.M. Rayhan Uddin, the Daily Observer’s Jhenaidah correspondent, said: “The meet-the-press session was scheduled for 3 p.m. Journalists arrived on time, but the UNO was not there. After waiting until 3:22, we learned that an agriculture office meeting was scheduled in the same room at 3:30. Once we learned this, journalists left the venue in frustration.”
However, newly arrived Kotchandpur UNO Shamim Hossain sees the journalists’ boycott differently. He said: “There was a meet-the-press session scheduled. But I’m only learning from you that they boycotted it. As far as I knew, they had asked for a different day.”
The incident has caused discontent among local journalists. However, those involved expect the matter to be resolved through discussion going forward.