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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We can now confirm that cartoonist Arif has been freed and he is out of jail after languishing there for 6 months. A Dhaka magistrate asked authorities Thursday to free Arifur Rahman. We should mention, however, here that his release did not just happen painlessly. In this complex case, there were months of lobbying, advocacy and most importantly court battles that had to be fought. Barrister Sara Hossain and her team, who fought for Arif and continued to remind us of his case deserve our heartfelt gratitude for their courage and persistence. When the issue moved off the headlines and everyone forgot about this young chap, Sara and her team kept on fighting the lonely legal battles. Months ago when High court deemed his arrest illegal, there was a snide comment in the drishtipat blog about how inconsequential that verdict was. But what that comment failed to appreciate was the combined effort from the lawyers to step through each legal obstacle surrounding his release and that it was part of the incremental steps towards a long court battle in Bangladesh’s complex legal web. We should also mention the losers — the newspapers who refused to publish any op-eds or editorials asking for his release for “technical reasons”.

Solidarity to all who fought for his case in all fronts — via blogs, writing letters, faxes and through international lobbying and most importantly on the legal front.

HRW has published a 44 page summary on the account of what happened to Tasneem Khalil in custoday.

Here is the chilling full report where there is a lot of first hand account by Tasneem.

The international media has picked up the news story widely.

Original thread from last May in UV.

Here is a reaction that we got after someone read through the piece:

My blood is boiling with rage. I have been there all along in Bangladesh but never knew a single word of it. So you see how ‘neutral’ this media has become. I was in total darkness. I read T Khalil’s blog once in a while and thought that was a smart guy. It was so appalling to see what happened to him and its even worse than Pak Army cause its our own Army. I knew DGFI is involved in some notorious activities but this is the first time I saw first hand evidence.

The report on Tasneem is outrageous, no doubt.

However, if someone reads it as a damning indictment against the whole of army in general, it will be wrong. As evident from Tasneem’s testimony, there were a number of people in army (juniors) who were sympathetic to him. But the reality is that there is unchecked and unaccoutable power to a very few. When that happens, there is bound to be misuse ot it. As a result, the image of the whole institution suffers. That is what we are seeing in Bangladesh today. That is why an institute that was not trained for law enforcements should not have taken over this job for such a prolonged period. It simply does not work. So this is damning indictment against using army for law enforcement and also an indictment against arbitrary use of power. Most importantly its a damning indictment against torture.

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We are reposting the following article that we posted three months ago on what to do with the cartoonist. The judgement on the detention order is due out tomorrow. We are urging all of you to send this urgent appeal to the chief adviser TODAY urging him to to take into consideration Arif’s background and good character, in particular that he has clearly expressed regret for any untoward offence caused, and the facts and circumstances in which he has been accused and imprisoned, and to intervene to withdraw all pending detention orders and case (CR Case no . 2298 of 2007 filed by OC Jane Alam) against him and to ensure his immediate release.

It has been well over four months that Arifur Rahman, the cartoonist formerly employed by the Prothom Alo, has been in jail. It is more in sorrow than anger we note that in this time, no newspaper has run a supportive editorial. Some consider it a ‘dead’ issue, subsumed by the latest political soap opera. Others think, it’s not prudent to upset the delicately poised political situation by supporting Arif. Mridul Chowdhury argues that the government should act basing its decisions on the common thread that created Bangladesh and initiated Islam: tolerance and justice.

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Almer’s era defining piece from today’s New Age.

I write, therefore I am. Every time you tell me not to, I will tell you back.

I write, therefore I am
by Zayd Almer Khan

I write. That’s what I do. You tell me not to. Repeatedly, like a broken record. Sometimes rather coyly, sometimes cajolingly, sometimes more firmly. But always with a tone of authority, even superiority in your voice – entirely false in their assumptions as those assertions might be. You try to intimidate me, when in fact you are intimidated by my words. The words I write. Because my words are written out of conviction. Conviction in democracy. Conviction in the people’s ability to decide for themselves. Conviction in the electorate’s right to choose its own steward. Conviction in the absolute necessity of the steward to be accountable to the electorate at all times. Conviction against autocracy. For you are autocracy.

I speak. That’s what I do. I speak my mind. You tell me not to. No coyness here, because you think I’m vulnerable, my licence to speak cancelled by you with the stroke of a stooge’s (sorry, judge’s) pen. But in fact it is you who is vulnerable to my words. The words I speak. Because my words are spoken out of conviction. Conviction in justice. Conviction in fairness. Conviction in rule of law. Conviction in due process. Conviction against persecution, however ‘noble’ the motive. For you are the persecutor.

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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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Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

That’s Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As an affiliate of a human rights organisation, Unheard Voices is unequivocally committed to the right to freedom of opinion and expression. This commitment is manifest in various write ups in these website, and in various Drishtipat projects. And yet, we time to time moderate comments posted by our readers. Is there an inconsistency in the UV admin certain comments while calling for the right to freedom of expression for cartoonists and journalists in Bangladesh? Why do we moderate some comments? And can governments, particularly democratically elected ones, use reasons similar to ours to censor views they don’t like?

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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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It is more than a month since Arifur Rahman’s arrest. 30 days is a long time. Mohammad Arifur Rahman, the Prothom Alo cartoonist, has spent the better part of Ramadan in prison and has spent Eid away from his family. (more…)

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…)

You can see the full video of this sorry incident and read about it here and yes, it happened in India.

News report

TV footage

Previous discussion on this trend in Bangladesh. But looks like its a pretty common phenonmenon. With friends like these who needs the enemy of Islam?