Urgent Action Appeal to the Prime Minister of Peoples' Republic of Bangladesh Begum Khaleda Zia

Your Excellency:

Drishtipat, the voice of human rights in Bangladesh, would like to urge your urgent attention about its concern on the recent rise of atrocities against journalists of Bangladesh. Just from newspaper clipings of Daily Star alone we have accounted for about 15 incidents against the jounalists in last two months alone. The most alarming aspect of it is that in most of these incidents the perpetrators belong to the ruling party or its affiliates. As a result, hardly any action is being taken by the government or the
police. As an active campaigner for the rights of journalist Tipu Sultan during the previous government, Drishtipat believes that intimidation and threats to the journalists are a tremendous obstacle in free flow of information and objective reporting by the journalists.

In fact, one recent case, where on July 10th, members belonging to the Jatiyotabadi Juba Dal abducted Iqbal Hossain Ratan correspondent with Prothom Alo at Keraniganj town and he was kept in confinement and was subjected to torture. During the confinement for more than six hours, the
hooligans battered both his hands so that he is not able to write again. He was later found abandoned with serious injuries lying at the roadside in the afternoon. This case is a grim reminder of the case of Feni's journalist Tipu Sultan whose similar case was highlighted by International Media all around the world and against which you also registered strong protest while being the leader of the opposition. To make the situation worse, police cracked down on seven journalists and injured them severely at Dhaka University campus yesterday. This was done in spite of their showing journalist ids and without any provocation as reported by the Dhaka Dailies.

We are concerned that if such actions continue to go on unstopped and unpunished, journalists will stop reporting honestly in the fear of a violent backlash and as a result the people in general, specially the victims of abuse and crime, will be done a great disservice. While your government has allowed relative freedom of the press in the country, such freedom is meaningless if journalists are afraid to write for the fear of being attacked and not getting protected by the government from the perpetrators of crime.

Therefore we would like to urge your kind attention to take immediate action against the criminals, regardless of their party affiliation, of recent cases of atrocities against the journalists. For the longer term solution of this problem, we would like to urge you to create a new stringent law to protect the journalists. The punishment should be harsh and quick against any one who commits a crime against the journalists. Also the police officials, who violated the law by physically abusing the journalists carrying out their professional duties and whose conduct has been termed "barbaric" by the home minister, must be punished after proper investigation. We have documented the recent cases of journalists abuse on our website. We hope your quick attention to these cases would restore the confidence of the journalists to carry on their professional responsibilities
sincerely.

Sincerely,
Volunteers of Drishtipat
 

Photo credit: Daily Star