The general secretary of the ruling party and a ranking cabinet minister asserted that “it was not a simple mistake but a criminal offence”. He argued that “in any advanced democratic country if such kind of child exploitation had happened, licence of the media would have been cancelled”.
The timeline of arresting Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman Shams is very telling. According to police documents, a case under the Digital Security Act against Shams was registered with Tejgaon police station at 2:15 am.