The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Sunday exonerated two journalists of a UK-based news magazine The Economist — Adam Roberts and Rob Gifford — from contempt charge as they were not involved in the hacking of the Skype account of former ICT chairman Justice Nizamul Huq. The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, also delivered some observations for media regarding ways to deal with the tribunal matters, including putting a bar on the journalists to make any direct contact with the tribunal members.
In the observation, the tribunal said the journalists could not make any contact with any member of the tribunal over telephone, through e-mail or any other means.
If the journalists want to know anything regarding the trial matters, they should collect information from the lawyers, the observation said, for information on administrative matters, the journalists should contact the registrar of the tribunal.
The observation also suggested that if any information was collected in an unlawful manner, the media should not publish it and no one should scandalize the tribunal over any published report.
Earlier during the hearing, Barrister Mostafizur Rahman Khan, appearing for The Economist journalists, said the journalists only wanted to verify the veracity of the Skype conversation between Justice Huq and Ziauddin as it falls under their journalistic responsibility.
-With The Independent input
