Abdul Mokim: A young woman named Swarnamoyee Biswas reportedly committed suicide last Saturday (October 18) evening. Swarnamoyee was working as a Graphics Designer at the newly launched Dhaka Stream. As the news of her death spread, anger flared up on social media, including among journalists. Her colleagues were seen writing on social media that she chose to take her own life after failing to get justice for sexual harassment at the office.
We subsequently contacted her relative, Aniruddha. She (Swarnamoyee) was his maternal cousin. He informed us that Swarnamoyee had been mentally distressed for the past few days. However, he does not know if Swarnamoyee had informed anyone in the family about this. To his knowledge, there was no significant family strife in their home. However, he did mention her being upset about the office matter.
He disclosed that when her brother rescued her from her room last Saturday, there were blade marks on her hand. However, he refrained from commenting on this, leaving the entire matter to the police investigation.
Nonetheless, questions are being raised about this issue on social media by Swarnamoyee’s colleagues and various other quarters.
We have learned that on July 13, under the title ‘Lodging complaint against inappropriate behaviour in the workplace,’ Swarnamoyee Biswas, along with several other media workers at the institution, submitted a written complaint to the Editor and Publisher of Dhaka Stream and Bangla Stream, alleging sexual harassment against Mr. Altaf Shahnewaz, the Bangla Content Editor of Dhaka Stream.
Swarnamoyee Biswas’s colleagues allege that instead of penalizing the accused, Dhaka Stream was attempting to reinstate him, which Swarnamoyee could not accept.
We learned that Swarnamoyee was unhappy through an apprentice corporate lawyer. Speaking on condition of anonymity, this lawyer said that Swarnamoyee had contacted a known person a while back regarding this issue. Their intention was to inquire whether one could be dismissed from the job while a sexual harassment investigation was pending. Essentially, they sought advice on whether the office could legally do this.
We confirmed that following this incident, three of the employees who were involved and vocal in raising the sexual harassment allegation were dismissed, citing various reasons. Although they were terminated under the pretext of ‘inability to perform their work.’ The dismissed employees are Sajib Tushar, Shatabdika Urmi, and Ishtiak Hossain.
Based on a week long evaluation, I was told that I was an average of 3 hours late daily in reporting, and I was fired.
We were able to contact Shatabdika Urmi, one of the three dismissed employees. She called the allegation on the basis of which she was terminated ‘absurd.’ Expressing dissatisfaction with the decision, she informed us, ‘Based on a week long evaluation, I was told that I was an average of 3 hours late daily in reporting, and I was fired.’ She also stated that the sexual harassment complaint was not resolved before her termination.
Regarding the entire matter, we contacted Dhaka Stream’s Editor, Golam Iftekhar Mahmud, via WhatsApp and email, sending the Dhaka Stream a set of questions. Although they did not answer the questions, they sent us a public statement. In it, they mentioned that they had formed a two-member committee to investigate the sexual harassment allegation. Subsequently, based on the investigation report finding ‘evidence of unprofessional conduct in some cases’ by Altaf Shahnewaz with colleagues, the Dhaka Stream management decided to ‘uphold the initial decision to withdraw the accused from the newsroom, and the Dhaka Stream management finalized a code of conduct for employees.’
However, they stated in their public statement that ‘there is no connection between Swarnamoyee’s death and the allegations against Altaf Shahnewaz.’
Earlier today, on October 19, Dhaka Stream published two reports in Bangla and English expressing grief over the death of their media worker. However, there is considerable ambiguity in Dhaka Stream’s headlines and detailed reports. In neither report did they mention Swarnamoyee’s unnatural death; rather, the reports were narrated in a way that might suggest she died a natural death.
As of today, October 19, when we are writing this report, we have not found any major Dhaka-based media outlet publishing news about this matter. Such silence on the death of a colleague seems abnormal and unprecedented to us.
In their public statement, Dhaka Stream asserted that they had formed a two-member committee to investigate the sexual harassment allegation. They further stated that the investigation report found ‘evidence of unprofessional conduct in some cases’ by Altaf Shahnewaz with colleagues. Based on this finding, the Dhaka Stream management decided to ‘uphold the initial decision to withdraw the accused from the newsroom,’ and simultaneously, the management ‘finalized a code of conduct for employees.’
We believe that it is essential for media organizations to immediately establish a code of conduct towards female colleagues, a specific framework for the protection of women employees, and an anti-sexual harassment and anti-oppression cell in the workplace, and to properly resolve such complaints with due importance within a limited timeframe.