(Media Watch/IFEX) – The following is a 12 May 2001 Media Watch press release: Four correspondents of the daily Prothom Alo were recently threatened after reporting on various activities. Police were informed of the situation, but the journalists still do not feel safe to carry out their professional work normally. On its front page today, […]
(Media Watch/IFEX) – The following is a 12 May 2001 Media Watch press release:
Four correspondents of the daily Prothom Alo were recently threatened after reporting on various activities. Police were informed of the situation, but the journalists still do not feel safe to carry out their professional work normally.
On its front page today, the daily Prothom Alo reported that correspondent Rajshahi Anu Mostafa, Manikgonj correspondent Arup Roy, Kushtia correspondent Tariqul Haq Tariq and Narshingdi correspondent Habibur Rahman Habib received several threats from terrorist groups.
Mostafa wrote a report with a picture of an armed ruling party cadre who participated in a recent strike in Rajshahi. The report was published in Prothom Alo on 13 April 2001. Afterwards, a terrorist group was angry with him. They threatened him and his family members by telephone and assigned some terrorists to assault him. The group has been patrolling near his office and home. Mostafa and his family members do not feel safe. A case against the reporter and Prothom Alo has already been filed by the group.
On 5 May 2001, Prothom Alo published a report which explained that a ruling party leader in Dhamrai (Savar, a small Manikgonj district town very close to the capital Dhaka) had built a market by taking over government land. The following day (6 May) somebody threatened to kill Prothom Alo Manikgonj correspondent Roy. The owner of the mobile phone used to issue the threat is a local ruling party leader. Roy filed a general diary (GD) at the local police station.
On 4 May, Kushtia correspondent Tariq wrote a report about a high police official’s farewell ceremony. In his report, he mentioned how the expenditures for the ceremony were made, the types of gifts that were given to the outgoing police boss by the local police, etc. The police were annoyed by the report. After publishing his report, Tariq and his wife received telephoned death threats. The caller asked Tariq’s wife why the journalist was curious about police officers’ internal affairs.
Narshingdi correspondent Habib was issued a threat after publishing an investigative report about the chairman of the local municipality. A legal notice was served against him, but a terrorist group paid by the chairman followed Habib and monitored his activities. Habib had to move his family members from his home for security reasons.
