Thu 28 Feb 2008
This is how author Tahmima Anam of Golden Age fame, daughter of Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam, was captioned in New Age yesterday. Perhaps it is an honest mistake. Perhaps it is not. If it isn’t, then this is so silly that its almost embarrassing and disgusting at the same time.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:11 am
nasty hatchet job - New Age should be ashamed of themselves.
such jealousy and pettiness does nothing to diminish the author, although it definitely does diminish New Age and everyone associated with it.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:38 am
I do not understand why it would not be given the benefit of doubt of a mistake. No disrespect to Tahmima Anam, but is there any reason that every line editor, staff photographer of New Age must recognize Tahmima from a picture?
And why there would be a suggestion that New Age would even attempt to take a jab at Mahfuz Anam? Is there any past precedent, any sign anywhere?
In fact, this kind of mistake is quite possible. In a crowded Boi-Mela, a photographer took the picture. Unless one stops in front of that stall, ask her who she is and what she is selling, there is a strong chance she can be mistaken as only a book vendor. Very few people in BD knows a author unless you are Humayun Ahmed, Imdadul Haq Milon or Zafar Iqbal.
And comment number 1!!!! I have no comment on this comment…..
February 28th, 2008 at 8:58 am
i dont know whether new age is taking a jab at anam or not. but it is still a mistake.
a photographer working for the press, is more than a photographer, s/he is a photojournalist. therefore, i disagree with rumi. it is the job of a photojournalist to know(find out) all this information, who is in the photo and whats going on.
February 28th, 2008 at 9:16 am
comment 2:
I thought so too…initially. But the author is quite clearly autographing the books! So any line editor, staff photographer of New Age should realise that shopgirls usually don’t do that!!
February 28th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Can someone from the media explain how the process of picking and captioning the pictures happen? Whose responsibility it is and what sort of checks it go through ?
As people in Dhaka know that the Bangla translation of Golden Age just got published with good amounts of publicity recently. So if this is a mistake then a lot of coincidences have to line up. Sahityo Prakash’s major launch of the boimela was this book and I am pretty sure that there were banners in front of the stall and specially when the author signing was going on. You can tell from faces of the onlookers that they clearly were looking at a curious event and not just a sales girl selling books. Moreover,as has already been pointed out, she was signing the books and was not giving change.
Let’s not be allergic about criticism of media. If its an honest mistake, its should be admitted but its still a pretty big mistake that speaks poorly of the paper. Unfortunately, in the vicious segmented civil society of Bangladesh, such mistakes are usually not so inncocent. The undercurrent of New Age and Daily Star and the two groups of intelligensia that they represent is well known to all living in Dhaka and who follows bd media closely.
February 28th, 2008 at 11:56 am
While I don’t take offense at the caption (nothing wrong with being a salesgirl), accuracy of information in a major newspaper is definitely an issue here. The first couple of questions in comment 5 are ones I would like to know the answers to myself. I would like to believe that this was an honest mistake, but comment 3 is right on the money. The photographer/photojournalist should have at least spoken to the “salesgirl” in this picture. I think a correction and an apology for misinformation from New Age is in order.
February 28th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I wonder, with all the problems we have in Bangladesh and in the world, why this specific issue can be such a big concern for discussion in this forum. For Gods sake, the country is under a state of emergency and the army chief, living country tied up, is having a six days pleasantries trip abroad.
If media corruption needs to be discussed, let’s talk about discrepancy of media fed stories of remand confessions and the real state of affairs currently taking place in the courts. If media indeed is needed to be discussed then also talk about what they wrote about different people before 1/11 and their present failure to stand by their stories in a court of law.
As it is seen in the picture, it is clearly a mistake. Failing to recognize author Tahmima Anam–how grave a mistake, how un-ignorable is it?
If this is such a grave mistake what would the editorial treatment of Journalist Tasneem Khalil story or cartoonist Arif story be termed? Silly Mistake?
We are simply making a mountain out of a molehill here. I also can see that New Age has definitely hit some nerves.
And again, is there a past precedent where new Age took a jab at Mahfuz Anam?
February 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Rumi bhai, this blog post has also hit your nerve, it seems. :). You are right. These things are trivial compared to the bigger issues of the country. But sometimes it gets too depressing talking about the bigger issues all the time. So expose like this where blogs are good at, brings in some excitement. :).
I have checked my sources and it seems the New Age photographer was sent specifically to take pictures of her signing the book–that pose was manufactured actually by him.
So its still a mystery how they confused her as sales girl. Any way, its water under the bridge. Let’s go back to discussing torture on Tareq Rahman.
February 28th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
This is probably not an innocent ‘mistake’. It is was a mistake then caption would be something like this: ‘Readers are buying books at the book fair’,/ ‘Young girls visiting Amar Ekushey Boi Mela’, ‘Enthusiastic shoppers at book fair’, etc. Think about it- in case of normal mistake the readers would become the subject of the topic/ caption, not ‘the salesgirl who was attending customers’!
February 28th, 2008 at 7:21 pm
eta hochhe Bhodroloker [A]bhodrobhabe khocha mara. Shameful though, idea of the caption is clever, look how it starts the debate if its a real ‘mistake’ or a fake one..
February 28th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
It was a mistake and a very embarassing one at that. (Most mistakes are pretty embarassing) Somewhere between the photographer and the editor of the Metro page, the wrong caption went with the wrong photo. These things happen, they have happened at the New Age before, and if I may add, at the Star, which are both by any accounts decent newspapers. Also, I am pretty sure that this will not be the last time that a wrong caption will be printed with a photograph in New Age.
The only reason this is raising eyebrows more than all the other mistakes that we make, and other papers make, everyday is the fact that Tahmima Anam happens to Mahfuz Anam’s daughter.
What is absolutely ludicrous is the suggestion that it was intentional. I mean really, are we such a bunch of morons that we would make it so embarassingly obvious if we really wanted to take a jab at the editor of a rival publication? Plus, if we really wanted to have a go at Mahfuz Anam, we would just do that, not take aim at his daughter who, by the way, has written a very good book which has received a good deal of positive coverage by the New Age, New Age Xtra and Slate!
Shameran Abed
Assistant Editor
New Age
February 29th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Has this HR blog site really run out of worthy issues to focus on? You cannot be serious… about bringing in “some excitement here…”; is that what Unheard Voices is all about, in the end?
If anything, this blogsite could point out that “salesgirl” is a so-o-o “out” — that it’s not just passé, arcane, or obsolete, or even “politically incorrect” — it’s plain offensive and derogatory. Tch! Tch! Mr Abed, that is what I’d be REALLY embarrassed about!
February 29th, 2008 at 5:38 am
#8,
Whats wrong in discussing torture on Tareq Rahman? I thought we all are human rights activists here and we all denounced torture. Huh!
February 29th, 2008 at 5:55 am
I still don’t get why it will be a “nasty rivalry” to caption Ms Anam as a salesgirl in a book stall. It can at best be a mistake and thats all… Not to mention ppl found this to be an “issue” worth blogging!!
March 2nd, 2008 at 2:23 am
Maybe she is a salesgirl who looks maybe like Tahmima. And whats wrong in saying someone is a sales girl?
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 pm
#11, Shameran, please post the link to the apology published in New Age regarding the inadvertant mistake in the caption - that should close the loop on this …
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 am
Who (Asif. S etc) was praising of New Age news, what they are going to say now? Does NA really practice true journalism or just like another 3rd grade news paper!!!
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Tnm: have you ever heard or used the term “sales boy”? Please provide the context(s) with reference(s).
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Only one problem with these cockamamie conspiracy theories.
When the book first came out, New Age ran a huge multi-page interview of Tahmima before DS did. They also scooped DS’ sister pub PROTHOM ALO by publishing the first chapter length excerpt from GA before PA could do the Eid special translation (by Leesa Gazi). In fact I gently poked Khademul Islam for allowing NA to get the advance scoop before DS in literature section.
March 4th, 2008 at 2:21 am
Ok, look - this is not cockamamie! The name “Daily Star” has (5,4) letters and “Tahmima Anam” has (7,4) letters - both 5 and 7 are prime numbers and 4 is shared. Clearly they are friends.
Now, Tahmima Anam’s name’s numerological value is 2 (http://members.aol.com/AspireA1/index2.html) and numerologically 2 does not get along with 5 (http://members.aol.com/AspireA1/love.html) and N E W - each letter’s value is 5 - three fives! NEW age and Tahmima HATE each other!
If that is not proof enough that this is a deep conspiracy, I don’t know what is! Don’t try to put a stop to this thread Naeem!
March 4th, 2008 at 5:21 am
FYI…
One of the half a dozen or so individuals that Mr Mahfuz Anam thanked during the launch of Tahmima’s book launch held last month was the Managing Director of New Age, Mr Badal Khan. Mr Anam said that his friends, particularly Badal (Khan) and Naila (his wife), promoted the book like Tahmima was their own daughter. So all of you should just get a life and find something more useful to discuss. It was a silly mistake.
March 7th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
i don’t see what the big deal is, so what thamima was called a sales girl? is veing a sales girlthe end of the world? they just didn’t recognize her, that’s all. n why wud being called a sales girl such an insult? doesnt this once again points to the fact that we are extremely class bound? worst than ancient caste bound brahmanical societies?