Unheard Voices

A butterfly flaps its wing somewhere in Borneo, setting off a perturbation in the weather system that eventually leads to a depression in the Bay of Bengal, and millions in the coastal Bangladesh fear the worst. This is a popular characterisation of chaos theory - a branch of mathematics that says that small changes in the initial condition has big impacts in the final outcome. I don’t know whether Arifur Rahman read about chaos theory or not, but when one of his cartoons was published by the Daily Prothom Alo last Sep, what happened was pretty close to chaos. This is how we covered the issue when it started.

This was a time of fraying nerves. Tazreena Sajjad describes the zeitgeist of the time here. It was within weeks of the Dhaka University riots. For a while, there were rumours of Prothom Alo being shut down. In the event, things calmed down after Prothom Alo editor, a one-time communist, apologised to the Imam of the national mosque in the presence of the information minister of the military-backed regime.

After a year, we can think about the controversy with a calmer mind. That’s what this post attempts. First it notes the role played by a new generation of activists - online and in the ‘real’ world - during the crisis. Then it notes that this wasn’t the first incidence of its kind. Finally, it discusses where and how we might draw the line between freedoms of speech and faith.

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As of Tuesday afternoon, access to Sachalayatan.com has been blocked from Bangladesh. Right before this unofficial ban, Sachal (as the users of this site fondly call it) bloggers vehemently protested the attack on a war veteran by Jamaat e Islami activists at a “Liberation War” meeting. In one such article Faruk Wasif on Sachalatayan analyzes the incident: “These obstinate freedom fighters from the subaltern dare do what our seasonal “Sector Commanders” or the frogs of our Syphilis Society cannot.” The full article, that may have sealed the fate of Sachal in Bangladesh, has been translated below.

In the meantime New Age produced another stinging rebuke to the military controlled government for its kiddy glove approach towards Jamaat. Here is the blistering piece.

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During my visit to Bangladesh, I sent this update about media to my colleagues

Amid the stale format of talks shows and old hogs, there are some spectacular young jounalists who are changing the way tv reporting talkshows are done. This is the most refreshing change and indeed gives me a lot of hope about the media. TV journalists like Kazi Jesin and their no holds barred approach is definitely something to keep an eye out for. Among the e channels, Ekushey TV is leading the pack in this. Ekushey TV seems to have targetted the youth as an audience and the reporting style , the get ups and the people who do the shows all are reflected in it. Also it has been helped by the shutdown of CSB channel, it seems as this is also focusing a news show driven approach in its programming.
Ekushey has restarted with a fresh and enthusiastic bunch and other channels which are name heavy are starting to look stale. The flagship program in Ekushey is of course their live news show at 9.30 pm where they directly take questions from the public as well and bring in young journalists to grill the participants. This program has accountability written all over it.

I was referring to the program Ekushey Shomoy and Ekushey Raat - the two flagship programs of ETV. Irene Khan just did one live tv show where she took questions from the public in Bangladesh during her trip and that was with Ekushey Shomoy and it was a spectacular show with some very tough questions for her. I saw the recording from the studio. The set up was really interesting considering it was a Bangladeshi show. A crew of online editors carefully monitor the show and any time an issue comes up that needs follow up or further challenge, they call in via phone or via sattelite link up another expert who directly challenges the participant. In very little time, it was slowly becoming the must see tv for all for the sheer courage of the topics and its ability to push the boundaries. Yours truly also took part in a live Ekushey Raat.

Today, however, AFP is carrying the news that these two programs have now been banned.

DHAKA (AFP) — Bangladesh’s army-backed emergency government has banned two popular live political talk shows, the private satellite television channel ETV said.

“The information ministry handed us a written order saying that we cannot telecast out our live talk shows any more,” a senior ETV official told AFP.

The two prime time shows, off the air since Thursday, hosted political and civil society leaders and took questions from viewers and journalists on political, economic, social and cultural issues.

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Finally, as a Communist, I believe that the liberty and dignity of all individuals to live and work freely wheresoever they please, is of far more greater value than the fetish of visas, passports and nationality. It is time to demand unconditional rights of residence, not only for Taslima Nasrin, but for all Bangladeshis (legal or otherwise) who happen to have made India their home, or who may be sojourning in this country at the moment.
- Shuddhabrata Sengupta (more…)

pic credit: private

Jahangir Alam Akash of Rajshahi recently did something really foolish which not many journalists dared to do in today’s Bangladesh. He filed an exclusive report for CSB channel on how RAB shot to injury a local political leader point blank in front of his wife and daughter. 30 minutes after the shooting, he went to the scene and reported live for CSB. Bad news for him. RAB commandar was not happy at this national exposure. The local RAB commander Major Rashidul Hasan Rashid called him and said he better watch out. His reports were “anti-state” and RAB would be forced to take action against him. Anyone who is familiar with our Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) knows that the “action” is almost tantamount to death sentence. Ever since then, Akash and his pregnant wife Sharmin felt there was no one to protect them. They moved from their house terrified and moved outside Rajshahi in fear of getting killed in “crossfire”.

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Very few media outlets reported on one of the most welcome statements in recent time from anyone connected to the Caretaker Government. Which in itself is a telling detail.

Speaking the day before the International Day for the Right to Information, ACC Chairman Hasan Mashhud Chowdhury was critical of the government’s recent censorship of two economist articles in early September, as first reported by Human Rights Watch. I repeat for those of us prone to label each other as “pro/anti-CTG”: the chairman of the ACC, a retired Lt. General and a former army chief agrees with human rights campaigners (aka a ngo):

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you cannot gather and shout on the streets, you are not allowed to protest anything (ofcourse, other than a cartoon ), if you are a journalist then not given the chances to write or tell the news you so want to tell, you are not fool enough to sms ppl any msg you want to spread really fast, you know there are some people who had been arrested by the security forces with their computer hard drive, emails they have exchanged and all so you became really cautious even while chatting online with your NRB friends about not making any jokes ,which can hurt the ego of our deshpremik shenabahinee or the army backed govt. But you may have been thinking you still can go on doing all the blogging you want to do using the pseudo name. In this world you are free, free, free… (more…)

Only a day after a very heartening conversation between the business men and the chief advisers to bring back investor and business confidence back to the economy, the government shuts down the first 24 hour news channel in Bangladesh temporarily. If the TV authority can not answer satisfactorily the charges of forgery within 7 days, the station will be shut down permanently. Cancelled. Closed. Shut Down.

It takes millions of dollars to build a company, it takes thousands of hours of sweat, intellect and hard work to build up an organization. But it takes a switch of a button to shut it down. CSB cost $7 million to build. In Bangladesh taka it amounts to 48 crore. Leave aside the freedom of information argument for now. Can we afford this? We are not advocating corruption here. If the information ministry officials played a part on this supposed forgery, can you feasibily punish the private company for govt corruption?

employees of CSB breakdown after hearing the news of shutdown

Take the case of Warid Telecom, for example. As per Daily Star report, Warid bribed Hawa bhaban heftily to get their telecom license unfairly at a much discounted rate. Can we afford to shut them now after they have invested millions of dollars in this country? Last time, I checked on news, the army chief was happily accepting laptops from their CEO for the voter list (Warid topped the list giving 500 laptops). If not, then why this selective application of the law? Isn’t this the chief adviser said that he would stop from happening to regain the business confidence back?

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Lot of theories and counter-theories are flying by regarding the last week’s incidents. We have some news stories that have been shared by the commenters in the blog which points to a conspiracy by the students and teachers led by political parties. While there may certainly be meat to the allegation of conspiracy, we, however, have not seen any news report that did its own investigation and presented evidence to support the theories. Rather, we detect a trend of having a trial by media of the accused people. None of these reporters actually care to interview both the sides in the incident and do their own investigation and in stead quote unnamed sources and allegations without any references or evidence. Also some reports tend to quote goyenda (investigator) sources which are itself a party at the incident. Alarmingly several newspapers are publishing news stories which are exactly identical in nature. At this time of news censorship in Bangladesh, we understand the difficulty in publishing objective news. Without discounting the conspiracy theories put forward by these various reports, we hope we get a balanced picture and a thorough investigative report done by their own reporter by credible print media and at the same time we hope due process is followed in treating the accused. We await an objective report by the enquiry commission of what happened. In the mean time, foreign news reporters are covering this issue. One such report today came out in BBC which interviews all the sides and presents a good overview on the outcry that followed the publication of the much talked about picture.

 Fairness of criticism:

Our leaders (Current and past) always invoke the name of nation when indeed they themselves do or want something. Distancing myself from that tradition, I’ll say I do not probably reflect the voices of the majority in my criticism of this CTG. I have no hesitation to say that this government is wildly popular to all the social classes of Bangladesh.

However, I believe that the majority endorsement does not make everything sacred. It is something like extra judicial killing of RAB. That policy is also wildly  popular and effective. Or if we look at US experience, we will see,  when President Bush decided to invade Iraq, it was very popular move and resident Bush’s approval rating was sky high. Whatever popular Iraq invasion was, it ultimately turned out to be a very wrong move.

Being a critique of the government does not mean being an enemy of the government. An unelected government ruling a country with emergency rules, needs some critique to grab the bigger picture. Otherwise, absolute un-contested power will corrupt absolutely.

A Different Caretaker Government:  

This unforeseen entity called interim caretaker government AKA military backed government AKA civil society government has completed its 6 month today. That means this government has spent double the time Justice Shahabuddin led government had in 1991. In 3 months, justice Shahabuddin successfully,

1. Reformed the administration and got rid of the dictatorial stooges.

2. Reformed the EC.

3. Kept the two feuding political parties happy and in a peaceful coexistence.

4. Started a transparent and fair trial of Ershad.

5. Conducted the most fair election in the history of Bangladesh.

6. Handed over the power to an elected government.

7. Kept the government free of any human rights abuses.

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Daily Star journalist, CNN stringer, Human Rights Watch researcher, and Blogger Tasneem Khalil was picked up by Joint Forces Thursday night, and released 24 hours later. They also took his 2 computers and mobile phone. Tasneem was chief researcher on HRW’s in=depth report on RAB “Judge, Jury & Executioner” and has written about torture-murder of Adivasi activist Choles Ritchil, extra-judicial killings, etc.

Update 11:1:00 pm BDT (Sat)
Amader Shomoy reports DGFI’s Rumi has been transferred.

Update 10:8:51 am BDT (Sat)

Prothom Alo has a small item @ bottom of front page. New Age covers well. Nothing in other papers. BDNews24.com has posted a scan of Mahfuz Anam’s statement.

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UA 109/07 Fear of torture/Possible prisoner of conscience
BANGLADESH Tasneem Khalil (m), journalist, human rights defender
Journalist Tasneem Khalil was arrested on 11 May by men from the Joint (army and police) Forces. Amnesty International believes he may be a prisoner of conscience, detained solely because of his activities as a journalist and human rights defender and exposing human rights violations by the security forces, and is seriously concerned that he may be at risk of torture.

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A new SMS flashed in my mobile phone. A friend and colleague reports, ” Tasneem Khalil picked up by the Army”. The mere words ‘Picked up by army’ always evoke a series of overwhelming thoughts in my mind. My flash back takes me to the historical events during the dawn of Bangladesh when intellectuals, journalists, professionals, politicians used to be picked up by the army and their cohorts. During those days and even during the years post independence, a lot more people were picked up and most of them never returned.(more…)

The story from CPJ speaks for itself

Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for CSB News, said he was threatened over the telephone after reporting on the raid on the house of Benjir Ahmed, in the northwestern city of Rajshahi on Wednesday. Ahmed was shot and wounded. About 30 minutes after the raid Akash had interviewed Ahmed’s wife, Mina, who had witnessed the shooting along with the couple’s young daughter, Prianka.

On Thursday evening, soon after his exclusive report aired, Akash told CPJ he was threatened by Major Rashidul Hasan Rashid, the leader of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) group that carried out the raid.

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DRIK News Presents
World Press Freedom Day: The Bangladesh Experience
Live Webcast (Bengali)+Simultaneous Text Translation (English)
May 3, 4:30-6:30 pm (GMT+6), DRIK Gallery (more…)