David Bergman, a British national and self-proclaimed investigative journalist has been a controversial and dubious figure for years for his work facing accusations of bias, distortion and also fabrication.
Commenting on Bergman, BdPolitico in a report titled ‘David Bergman — Lobbyist, Mercenary, No Journalist’ wrote:
With the BNP-Jamaat coalition out of power, Bergman turned to deposed radicals for a new career: political consultancy. An euphemism for political activism under the garb.
He, according to sources, signed up for a three-point contract — (a) defame, debunk and demean the Awami League by means fair or foul (b) project BNP and Jaamat e Islami as the only credible alternative in Bangladesh. (c) oppose and undermine the credibility of the International War Crimes Trials through constant legal sniping, so-called media exposes and constant lobbying in Western countries.
According to India Pacific, [David] Bergman’s alleged propagandist tendencies have been most evident in his reporting on sensitive issues such as poverty, corruption, human rights abuses, and the caste system. His films, such as “India’s Dark Side” and “Children of the Pyre,” have painted a bleak picture of India, portraying it as a nation plagued by social injustice, rampant inequality, and deep-seated societal ills.
Bergman has strongly denied the allegations of propaganda, stating that his goal is to shed light on important social issues in India. He believes that his work can contribute to positive change in the country. He has also defended his methodology, stating that he uses rigorous journalistic standards and that his work is based on evidence.
According to media sources, David Bergman first traveled from Birmingham, England, to Bhopal in March 1986 by bicycle as a charity to raise ₤5,000 for the victims of the disaster. While there, he became entangled in a legal dispute over the government’s role in relief that The Guardian later dubbed “The Bergman Affair” (October 31, 1986).
In September 1986, when Bergman was 21 years old, he was held in custody in violation of India’s Foreigners Act and National Security Act and was accused of working for Union Carbide.
It may be mentioned here that, on December 3, 1984, following methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas released from the plant of Union Carbide in Bhopal [which also is known as Bhopal Disaster], over 500,000 people were affected.
The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. It left an estimated 40,000 individuals permanently disabled, maimed, or suffering from serious illness, making it one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.
Here again, it is proved that David Bergman lacks minimal ethics and since his younger days, he has always been associated with the criminals and culprits. On this particular case, he had worked for Union Carbide, a company that was responsible for the death of 3,787 people and for leaving 40,000 individuals permanently disabled, maimed, or suffering from serious illness. Doesn’t it show the ugly and inhuman man in David Bergman?
David Bergman has been writing for terror-network Al Jazeera for many years and has been on the monthly payroll of the terror patron Qatari regime. Born in 1965, he is the son of Alan Bergman, a dentist from Hadley Wood I north London. Bergman holds degrees in both politics and law and his law degree is from the University of Birmingham.
As a journalist, the only career David Bergman has outside Bangladesh is with Twenty-Twenty, which is a British television production company. In September 2007, following Twenty-Twenty’s merger with Shed Media Group (now Warner Bros Television Productions UK), David Bergman was sacked from Twenty-Twenty on various allegations, which included coverage against bribes, womanizing and addiction to drugs.
On February 15, 2013, David Bergman wrote an article in a website named Bangladesh Chronicle, in response to an article written by Tahmina Anam, daughter of Mahfuz Anam [editor of The Daily Star in Bangladesh]. David Bergman first tried to get his response to Tahmina’s article in The Guardian or any of the British newspapers.
As none accepted it, he had published in Bangladesh Chronicle saying: “The writer, Tahmina Anam has written a piece on ‘Shahbag’ on the UK’s Guardian website. This is my response: “Hi Tahmina, You do realize, I hope – and I say this just on a point of accuracy – that Abul Quader Mollah was not actually convicted of ‘beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people’ as you put it so starkly. He was convicted – if you happen to have read the pretty well reasoned verdict – of being present on all these occasions with a range of men who did; he was not himself the principal actor according to what the court found. I think it is important to make that point clear – as the way you write it is rather misleading. He may be a brute or worse – but you kind of make him into a monster, which is not what the court found”.
Bergman’s response to Tahmina Anam’s article proves – he actually has been committedly working in favor of the war criminals. People are aware of his attempts to tarnish the image of the International Crime Tribunal in Bangladesh.
David Bergman is the son-in-law of Dr Kamal Hossain, a lawyer-cum- politician. Bergman’s mother-in-law – Hameeda Akhund alias Hameeda Hossain is the daughter of a Pakistani jurist named Abdullah Shafi Mohammad Akhund. Hameeda was born in 1936 in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan. Her father Abdullah Shafi was a diehard anti-Indian.
David Bergman’s job is to defame and demonize anyone who is confronting religious extremism and jihad. For this reason, he also has been running vile propaganda against me on social media claiming my contents are a mix of 5 percent fact and 95 percent “disinformation”. He even has labelled me as an agent of Bangladesh authorities. For a propagandist like Bergman with a series of track records of mischiefs and moral turpitude, such vile propaganda is not surprising.
