As I’ve mentioned before, Lutfur Rahman’s campaign does seem to have galvanised a section of the Tower Hamlets community and many, if not most, are certainly very angry young people who are fuelled by a fair degree of hatred.
That bitterness has been targeted in almost equal measure at the Labour NEC and the party’s official candidate, Helal Abbas. At Tuesday night’s hustings in Poplar, I heard many, including councillors who aspire to be MPs, hurl playground insults at him. Some said he lacks integrity for accepting the nomination after coming third in the voided selection process. They may well be genuinely held views, but more than one person I’ve spoken to who attended that hustings remarked on what appeared to be a fairly unpleasant and thuggish element to among some of his supporters; probably, that’s the case with all candidates, except of course the nice Greens…
Ordinarily, I’d put such opinions down to a generation gap which views all teenagers as yobs, but in the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending a lot of my time editing or removing comments from this blog which are not only potentially libellous, but which are also vile and outright nasty. There are many in the Labour party who believe the level of vitriol is similar to that experienced by Oona King in 2005 when she was beaten by Respect and George Galloway. They believe the tactics are similar: smear the candidate at all costs.
Incredibly, as Andrew Gilligan reports here, those smears have been published in full in the London Bangla newspaper, whose well-funded print run this week has been distributed en masse around large parts of the East End. Laughably, it describes Cllr Oli Rahman as being “traumatised” by a handbags-at-dawn incident at Stepney Green Tube station on Monday. Even Oli will laugh at that: yes, he was so traumatised he called me immediately after dialling 999 and said: “I’ve got a story for you.”
You can read the London Bangla edition in full here. You’ll notice that not one of the allegations has been put to Abbas, who tells me he strongly denies them and describes them as “outrageous smears”.
Before anyone starts chipping in about how Lutfur wasn’t able to respond to Abbas’s dossier to the NEC, that’s a completely different issue. Newspapers have a duty to give the subject of allegations a right of reply. I would be very surprised if London Bangla is not sued for defamation.
The issue is such a disgrace that Emdad Rahman has decided to resign his unpaid post as “executive editor” in protest. He tells me he has had nothing to do with those articles and he completely disassociates himself from them.
So Emdad, whom I’ve featured several times on this blog as an example of positive activism in Tower Hamlets, becomes the first casualty of the poison that has infected our borough.
Pity he’s not standing for Mayor.
UPDATE- 4.25pm, Saturday, October 16
Emdad tells me that Newham Labour councillor Forhad Hussain has also resigned as London Bangla’s news editor in protest. This really does raise the question who was behind the published smears. The editor and managing director is Shah Yousuf. He was awarded the Civic Award by Tower Hamlets council last year for his “outstanding contributions to the community”. Here’s what else he boasts about on his own website.
Shah Yousuf
Shah Yousuf (Shajad) is a man who works to bring his dreams become true. A man with very high ambitions of making a difference to the community by bringing positive changes to the lives of the people he proudly serves.
An engineer of Information Technology and Graphic Design by profession, Shah’s laptop is his second self and is the vital tool that enables him to interact with the greater community.
Shah’s self satisfaction stems from the desire to ensure that the community benefits first and foremost, and his outlook defines his principles.
Shah is a perfect example of a self-made man. He learnt to succeed in life at a very early age, and is currently involved in various projects, mainly involving the use of Information Technology, new media, outreach and commerce.
To aid his vision, Shah created London Bangla Limited where he is the Managing Director.
The very first production of this company is London Bangla News Weekly, the first free English-Bangla Bilingual free weekly. As the Editor of London Bangla, Shah oversees and maintains strategic responsibility and management, including a highly skilled editorial team of volunteers, dedicated to serving the communities needs.
London Bangla LTD
London Bangla is the only bilingual newspaper in Britain and it is free. Its target reader group are the 153,893 Bangladeshi communities residing in the greater London Authority (GLA). The newspaper is published every Friday and distributed to many outlets including local mosques, Islamic and community centres.
London Bangla is the first step of Shah’s journey to making his vision become reality. His sheer enthusiasm and dedication has already spread to great heights, achieving much success, including public recognition since its creation.
Shah’s Business credentials
Royal Bengal Airline
Shah was the Marketing Director of Royal Bengal Airline (2006), aiming to operate domestic flights in Bangladesh with future plans of international operations.
Faith Business Ltd
In 2005 Shah started a print and graphic design company in East London; Faith Business Limited which is now operationally managed by a team of different stakeholders.
Primeland Property Services
In 2005 Shah also invested in property development with the aim of of selling lands and overseas property in the UK to residents. For Primeland Property Services, Shah achieved outstanding success, mainly due to his personal attributions; integrity, assertiveness and strong analytical skills.
EuroBangla and Notudin Newsweekly
Shah believes in personal development and sharing his expertise in the field with other members of the community that he proudly serves. Before London Bangla he worked at EuroBangla as the Managing Editor and Notundin Newsweekly as a Managing Director.
Shah in the media
Shah hosted a live TV show for Channel S from 2006 to 2010. He presented a live discussion programme where the public participated live regarding issues on a variety of subjects covering immigration, community safety and financial matters.
Shah’s success in business
Shah has received the Borough of Tower Hamlets Council’s Civic Award 2009 for outstanding contributions to the community and specifically praised for establishing London Bangla, the exclusive free bilingual newspaper where he is editor.
Achievements
During Shah’s career, public recognition has been at the forefront, winning him commendations and several awards. Balancing these with his business commitments, Shah is proud that his strong efforts have brought greater contribution to the lives of young people and particularly improving the services of the Bangladeshi community.
LondonBangla Newsweekly received recognition of outstanding services to the community in 2009 by the Borough of Tower Hamlets. Since then Shah has received the 2010. Community Safety Award in tackling and reducing anti social behaviour, where Shah campaigned and overseen in particular the installation of CCTV in supporting community safety initiatives to address crimes in the locality.
While expressing his feelings about the award Shah said, ‘It is always a good feeling when your efforts are recognised. But now I feel more responsible as an award brings more responsibilities.
“For this I thank the LondonBangla team. It’s me receiving the award but I am just picking it on the teams behalf.’
Shah receives Tower Hamlets ‘CIVIC Award 2009’
‘Community Safety Award 2010’ from Tower hamlets Council.
Public commitments and appointments
Shah is a highly regarded individual within the Bangladeshi community; a positive role model and dedicated community activist.
Shah is the current elected Chair of Chicksand East Tenants and Residents Association (2008- to date) comprising of Hanbury Street, Pauline House and Davenant House near E1 Whitechapel. His appointment has been successfully acknowledged by the residents, in helping to deliver several community safety initiatives.
Chairing Chicksand East TRA MeetingShah is a founder and Co-ordinator of St. Mathias Bangla School. This school provides an after school service where children are taught their mother tongue, Bangla. The age group for children is 4-7 years.
Shah is a founder of the charity organisation “Help To Save Them”. helptosavethem.org is a non profit making organisation. This organisation aims to help abandoned children in Bangladesh.
Can anyone provide any insight into the young Lutfur supporters?
I note on Lutfar’s website, that Youth Conference: Lutfur 4 Mayor was held on 12 October. This was an invitation only event and requiresd registration.
Sparra
Have the lib dems or the tories done anything in this election?
Sorry, the Conservatives and the Lib dems have not been scuffling on street corners like so many 14 year olds. Sorry, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems have not been abusing each other in ever increasingly bizarre ways. Nor have we attempted to hi-jack local blogs with posts from trolls and sock-puppets all with the same IP addresses.
In fact (although I can’t speak for Mr Griffiths and his team)the Neil King and the Conservatives have been out every night, delivering Leaflets, speaking to local voters and meeting community leaders. If “Robert” wants to join us he still has timew to contact the campaign via Face-Book.
The London Bangla reports last few weeks are disgusting. Never before I have seen any news papers been so one sided, biased and full of filth against Abbas.
The Bengali section is even worst and more disgusting and probably breaking all code of conducts, laws and ethics. In this paper Bangla and English contents supposed to be same. For some clever reasons for last week it is slightly different. It has more filth against Abbas in Bengali then English. People should see the back issues.
I know you are an award winning journalist. Can you not report this to PCC?
Who finance this? I also see council, NHS, Partnership advertising. According to a reliable source, the London Bangla has been distributed to household by same distribution company as the Council Newspaper East End Life.
Shah Yousuf, Editor, stood for the Council election as an Independent. Guess what? From Spitalfields and Bangla Town Ward. Allegedly, Lutfur Rahman encouraged him to stand so that he can take some vote from Abbas! Allegedly he has very close links with Lutfur.
I wonder where London Bangla get all these funds from to produce pro-lutfur (interview/propaganda) video, some 12 minutes long on the website.
All i can say is its a real shame Emdad was left no choice but to resign. Ive known Emdad for some time now and he is definately genuine, honest and all his reporting is not only breath of fresh air but tranparent AND un-biased.
Bangla newspaper has indeed lost a credible person. But i am pretty sure he still will continue his great work. Lets hope so.
As for what newspapers covers or what people say, i think we can all safely say this election has been marred with controversy form both ends right from the start and if anyone thought it was going to be easy then they are either naieve or pathetic.
Its a real shame how people’s true colours come out as soon as an opportunity arises. Better the devil you know I say.
But for once i will agree with you Ted which is quite rare that I usually do – Emdad should of stood for Mayor 🙂
He tells me he will continue to write community news for the paper. The East London Advertiser should take him on board.
Well perhaps if the ELA sought to expand it’s readership beyond old White pensioners it would. It’s always been a puzzle that the hackney gazette sought to change and to relfect yhe diversity of hackney why the ELA always never had such ambition.
so upset Emdad has resigned, I sincerely hope he changes his mind and comes back because we love his artilces. I really hope you can sort this out with London Bangla because we need someone passionate like you voicing our community. Please come back Emdad. This is a black day for our community if this whole political drama means we lose community leaders and role models in the process. Can everyone please write to Emdad to make him change his mind? I really hate politics!
OMG a newspaper is biased!!!! Unlike the reporting of Ted and Andrew Bangla newspapers take a different view!
Andrew dismisses the views of Muslim leaders as IFE, would he dismiss teh views of Catholic cardinals on the ground that they were child abusers!
Your hypocrisy knows no limits. And as for Emdad, I’d rather wait for his own views in his own words and not the twisted version from Mr Jeory.
Stuart – actions speak louder than words, no? He’s resigned, as has the paper’s news editor. He told me that directly. He told me he completely disassociates himself from the articles. Capiche? He has offered to remain as a non-political news editor because he has a passion for writing.
I would say he has acted with integrity and I’m sure you’d want to applaud him for setting such an example.
Emdad for Mayor. The momentum is growing.
Why do people keep complaining that this blog is biased? Surely Ted Jeory is no longer working for the ELA and can say what he wants on his blog. He’s under no obligation to provide ‘balanced’ reporting. There are other blogs that you can go to for the Lutfur/Respect line, for example Socialist Unity where they seem to have mistaken Lutfur Rahman for Martin Luther King.
Well said RD, Ted is under no obligation to provide honest, unbiased reporting. After all he is the unofficial Labour party press officer. In addition, if people had high expectations of his journalism, please don’t forget which newspaper group he works for and the constant barrage of racist and Islamophobic headlines that appear on the front pages. He is correct to praise Emdad’s integrity, just a shame that he doesn’t practice what he preaches.
Stuart stop making trouble Emdad is a good man and LB were wrong to publish this type of story.
politics in tower hamlets is disgusting i’ve always hated it, politics in th is like a football match full of hooligans. the purpose of politics is to help the community as a whole ur their to serve them not ur own personal interests.
a journalist is forced to resign- for what? to remain unbiased? . well all i can say its a huge lost for London Bangla! lost a honest hard-working person.
forhad resigning – one less creep spreading his poison.
i’ve know Emdad for number of years and yes i agree he has always remained non- political but i’d like to see him carry on writing
Thats exactly why Ted loves him so much… He will attack newspapers that show any sort of inclination to Lutfur but shows so much love for Emdad who is non-political just to prove his point!
Ted’s writing clearly shows his support for Abbas and is using the same techniques that the Bangla papers have done to attack Lutfur. So it is a war between Abbas loving Ted and Gilligan against the Lutfur loving Bangla media. Of course Ted and Gilligan have gone up one step by attacking fellow journalists and papers. I wonder when the Bangla papers will follow with tit-for-tat responses to Ted and Gilligan.
The politics of TH is getting more and more merkier with papers and journalists taking sides and pretending not to!
Dude, you seem to have the same IP address as More_Labour_corruption, Labour_is_not_democratic, Vote_for_a_decent_politician, Dude_u_obviously_talking_from_b-side!, Labour_is_becoming_ridiculous_banana_republic, Anon, Chrome, Friend_of_a_THcouncil_staff, and TooManyStupidPeopleInThisWorld.
You and your nine other aliases seem to have missed the point: newspapers are absolutely entitled to take an editorial stance in an election, but that’s very different from publishing smears and allegations without offering any right of reply. As I said, I’d be very surprised if London Bangla is not sued over its latest issue. I know that I’d be very tempted.
To comply with my housekeeping rules, I’ll assume you’ll be using the name “Dude” from now on.
Ted, only noticed this response.
Firstly, i understand you have “house rules” but this a blog and is open to anyone and everyone. Unless you have a mechanism of logins which are tied down to email addresses like the other big papers like guardian, telegraph etc etc. i will use different names to keep myself anonymous. Being anonymous means we can make comments anonymously without having to give our personal information out. Using different names or just anonymous is what this website allows so i am only doing what your website allows me to do. If you really dont like my way of being anonymous then you ought to change your website to a login based system. Secondly, I am very aware that you have track IP addresses of people on your website, but I hope you do not use this in any sinister way. That would really be a breach of trust, especially as we love to debate with your comments/articles! Dont shoot your own fan club 🙂
Dude, I’m constrained by WordPress web design so I can’t change the functionality.
To get around that, it’s one name per IP address, unless you email me and explain why you need it otherwise.
By being Dude, you are anonymous, so I’m not sure why you’d need more than one alias.
Worryingly, there have been people on here agreeing with themselves.
You probably didnt understand what I meant by being anonymouos either. Having different names such as “Labour is not democratic” emphasises the comment I wrote anonymously and further removes identying a person. If I constantly go by the name of Dude then what was the point in me trying to be anonymous!
By the way are you suggesting I’ve been agreeing with myself? Though i cannot remember doing this, but if you believe I have then i apologise for being such a naughty person.
Also Ted, honesty as a person, I am sure you are a wonderful person, but your journalism is something to be said of when sometimes it seems to be quite political aligned and impartial, but that is my opion and I am sure we will agree to disagree.
So dont take it to heart when I make comments that you might not agree with from your political aligned perspectives.
He needs to be honest. But he can campaign for whoever he wants, can’t he? Isn’t this a private blog?
Sorry, comment number 9 was referring to the comment by ‘Democracy?’ but appears out of order.
IT IS A GREAT SHAME THAT FORHAD AND EMDAD HAD TO RESIGN AS THEY HAVE HAD SUCH A POSITIVE INFLUENCE ON THE BENGALI COMMUNITY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LONDON BANGLA NEWSPAPER.
I HAVE NOTICED THAT IT IS ONLY RECENTLY THAT THE PAPER HAS CHANGED ITS POLITICAL AGENDA.
I hope this is a turning point. The evil liars in TH have pushed their luck too far
Well what a last couple of days. Emdad is a young boy who grew up as my next door neighbour. I have seen him develop his skills, enthusiasm, and hunger to give service to this community for years in his various roles, both professionally through his work, and through his tireless committment to voluntary work, voluntary jobs, and fundraising activities inclusive of running the London Marathon. I have immense respect for his due diligence when it comes to political issues in particular. He has always remained impartial, fair, just and honest through his various streams of writing whether it be in Lodnon Bangla, or in his personal blog. Even during my election campaigns, he refused to offer me the pleasure of biased reporting in favour of myself. But equally, he also refused to offer my opponents the same priveledge. May I add that Emdad’s family member ran against me in the last local election but he did not once apply any favouritism. Naturally this is exactly why many speak extremely fondly of Emdad. I am so glad to learn from your blog Ted that Emdad has indeed resigned from London Bangla. I am also glad to learn that he was not party to the pro-Lutfur propaganda that was churned out in the name of journalism. However, I am equally sad because I know that Emdad, along with his colleague Forhad, have put so much dedication, energy and time into London Bangla upon a voluntary basis, and have been integral in its development and success. I am certain that this must have been a difficult decision for them, but most certainly one very well thought-out.
As with most readers of London Bangla, I am sure that many of them along with myself were absolutely baffled to see the extent in which this particular issue of London Bangla is nothing close to being an independent community newspaper. I know from being a regular reader of LB that they were obviously supportive of Lutfur for Mayor, rather than Abbas for Mayor. This has been clearly evident in their mainly front-page coverage of Lutfur always in a positive light, and Abbas being made the evil one.
When I picked up this weeks issue, I did expect a final push in favour of Lutfur Rahman to be presented via London Bangla. The first impression I got was from reading the double-sided front pages and as expected, i.e. it being a Bi-lingual paper, carried two front pages, one being in English and the other in Bengali language. Now one who is not literate in Bengali language would naturally assume that the English text is a translation of the Bengali text, especially because the layout is using the same picture of Lutfur Rahman. But this is not the case with London Bangla. The English main headline reads ‘LUTFUR CALLS FOR BETTER AND FAIRER FUTURE’ with a sub-heading stating ‘Where is the fairness in the way I have been treated?’. However, the Bengali version tells a completely different story, it reads SEVEN REASONS WHY IT IS IMPERATIVE TO MAKE LUTFUR WIN’, with its sub-heading stating ‘Abbas will get his due for implicating the Imaam of the holy Kaaba through the ballot box: 101 religious scholars statement’. This weeks entire issue of LB has turned from being what one expects from a newspaper, to becoming a completely intentional biased attack upon Abbas, equally designed to be a tool to get Lutfur Rahman elected as Mayor through its pages and pages of ‘the great Lutfur Rahman stories’. Pictures have been used, for example of Ken Livingstone to imply to it’s readers that Ken is backing Lutfur Rahman! Personal smear stories have been published about Cllr. Abbas with no attempt to pose such questions him prior to publication. From my knowledge of this community and its key culprits, I am not surprised to assume that many like myself are not stupid enough not to understand that this issue was created with the pro-active co-operation and blessings of Lutfur Rahman and his campaign team. We witnessed this form of similar actions from the ‘Yes for Mayor’ campaign that Lutfur Rahman has now admitted having supported, contrary to the dishonest statement he gave in writing in his letter dated 11 September.
I know Shah Yousuf personally. I am aware that he probably supports Lutfur Rahman for Mayor therefore I never got into a conversation with him to demand otherwise. However I did kind of ask him why he was always publishing pro-Lutfur stories that I felt were obviously biased and his response to me was ‘They (Lutfur Rahman) send him stories and articles and we (Helal Abbas) do not do the same. So I am assuming that perhaps this is what also happened upon this occassion, but obviously, LB did not feel it was necessary to seek a right of reply or response from Helal Abbas?
I am therefore extremely dissapointed at Shah Yousuf due to the rusbbish propaganda he has decided to churn out in aid of Lutfur Rahman via use of his newspaper as a tool. How Oliur Rahman’s claims of fear make the front page I will never understand? The distribution was increased hugely this week to other footfall areas, and persons distributing at tube stations etc. We even got copies through our letter-boxes at home. I do not know if this legally constitutes electoral expenses on behalf of Lutfur Rahman election campaign, but if it does not, then it is certainly the biggest and most obvious abuse (piss-take) of electoral law that I have ever witnessed in my expereince of being involved with elections.
I can understand Shah Yousuf being welcomed and acknowledged by the Lutfur for Mayor appreciation society, but I am pretty damn sure that the journalistic world will now certainly not respect his self-proclaimed status as an editor or journalist. As for Managing Director, if Helal Abbas does decide to sue LB, I am sure tht this is a limited company which will no doubt conveniently dissolve into liquidation! Sorry Shah, but you’ve lost all credibility as a newspaper, and my respect for your obvious biased role in this disgusting attack upon a Bangladeshi Muslim leader of a council, Helal Abbas.
[CONTENT REMOVED BECAUSE SENDER IS FROM THE SAME IP ADDRESS AS “HELENA”. IF THE COMMENTER EMAILS ME TO GIVE A VALID REASON, I WILL RESTORE].
In the event that Lutfur Rahman wins, there is the foundation for an election petition on the basis that that edition of London Bangla constituted an election publication on his behalf. It would mean proving that Shah Yousuf was acting as an agent of Lutfur Rahman when he published the paper.
There’s also a potential claim of false statement of fact concerning Helal Abbas’ personal character in there.
Emdad Rahman on Shahed Ali’s Facebook page (today):
“Guys. Just letting you know for accuracy purposes I haven’t resigned from the actual paper. I’ve resigned as Executive Editor as it’s become a politicised role and I don’t want to be impartial. I know good people on both sides, Shahed Bhai and family being one weve known for many moons.
I’ve been steering clear of the TH mayoral stuff and despaired at the antics. I always wanted to write and mostly highlight positive aspects, unless it was something I was v unhappy about, like the state of toilets in mosques. To be honest Shah for me has been the best media colleague I’ve worked with, especially after the shambolic and disrespectful treatment I received by two other publications for dedicated voluntary service. He’s always been v straight with me and tried his best to support the community.
I look forward to next Friday when you’ll all be mates again!”
Emdad Rahman can be trusted.
Sorry, I meant to say Emdad Rahman can not be trusted.
Ahh right… so it is only smears and poison when it comes to Abbas but aginst Lutfur there is no such thing?
Hypocracy at its best! I guess further proof that Ted is totally and utterly biased.
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In all honesty we should learn from the process, my admiration for Emdad and the team of London Bangla will remain, partisan politics aside Emdad is still reporting news objectively we should support and respect his decision. For clarification he is still working with LB as community news editor, let’s take this opportunity to wish him well, personally I like the notion of emu for mayor!!