Staff Correspondent

The Anti-repression Journalists' Front (Nipironbirodhi Sangbadik Front) has strongly condemned and expressed deep resentment over the derogatory remarks made by Dr. Syed Abu Ahammad Shafi, a top official of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), regarding media professionals.

In a joint statement issued to the media on Thursday, the platform's Convener Aktar Hossain and Member Secretary Sheikh Jamal vehemently protested Dr. Shafi's social media post, where he suggested that journalists should be tasked with cleaning hospital toilets. The journalist leaders termed the remark a gross insult and a malicious attempt to demean the noble profession of journalism and undermine the independent role of the media.

The controversy erupted following a Facebook post by Dr. Shafi, the Deputy Director of the Hospital Branch at the DGHS, on June 24. In his status, the official wrote, "Following high-level inter-ministerial discussions, the Ministry of Information and the journalists under its purview should be given the responsibility of cleaning the bathrooms, toilets, and interiors of the 600 district and upazila hospital buildings across Bangladesh for at least one fiscal year."

Reacting sharply to the post, the Anti-Repression Journalists' Front stated that such remarks expose a deeply perverted mindset of a responsible government official.

"Such derogatory comments not only humiliate the entire journalistic community but also question the free and responsible functioning of the media," the statement read.

The journalist body urged the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and relevant government authorities to immediately launch a neutral probe into the matter and take swift administrative and disciplinary action against Dr. Shafi to demonstrate institutional accountability and professional decorum.