Bangladesh Should Release Detained Editor, Bloggers

April 12, 2013

Bangladesh Should Immediately Release Detained Editor, Bloggers

As the political confrontation between the ruling party and the opposition in Bangladesh escalates, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls for the immediate cessation of all hostile actions against journalists and free speech activists.

Mahmudur Rahman, editor of the Bangla language daily Amar Desh, was arrested from his office on the morning of April 11 and remanded to thirteen days in police custody, ostensibly for interrogation in three cases that have been filed against him under provisions of law dealing with sedition, cyber-security and abetment to mob violence.

The sedition case stems from the publication in Amar Desh last December, of what were purportedly the transcripts of telephone conversations and emails exchanged between the judge heading a bench of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal and an overseas expert on war crimes jurisprudence.

The material, originally published on the website of the London-based weekly newspaper, The Economist, was reproduced in Amar Desh and led to the chief prosecutor of the Tribunal moving the High Court of Bangladesh for action under the sedition law and the country’s Information Technology Act, which prohibits the unauthorised recording of private telephone conversations and email messages.

Rahman also faces indictment under legal provisions dealing with abetment to mob violence. These charges stem from stories published in Amar Desh about the allegedly “blasphemous” blog posts put out by youth protestors who gathered at Shahbagh square in the capital city of Dhaka, for a two-month long demonstration demanding the prosecution of those accused of war crimes during the country’s 1971 war of liberation.

Amar Desh and two other newspapers identified with the political opposition and the Islamist parties have repeatedly been accused in recent weeks of abusing press freedom by propagating these allegedly false and misleading stories.

Targeted attacks on Bangladesh’s religious minority and clashes between Islamist activists and the police have in recent weeks claimed many lives.

Bangladesh police have responded to the challenge from the Islamist parties by arresting four of the supposedly “atheistic” bloggers believed to have caused offence. The four, were produced before a magistrate on April 10 and remanded to police custody for further interrogation. Bangladesh’s Home Minister has held out the possibility that seven other so-called “atheist” bloggers are under watch and could be proceeded against.

The IFJ notes that this escalating cycle of arrests is doing nothing to calm public anxieties and restore order.

The IFJ calls for the release of Mahmudur Rahman and the four imprisoned bloggers and the dropping of all charges against them. As elections in Bangladesh near, the IFJ calls for a dialogue within the media community on the norms of ethical and responsible journalism that does not deepen already sharp divisions.

The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries

Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific

Find the IFJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFJAsiaPacific

ENDS

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