Bangladesh

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 24 May 2005 CPJ press release: CPJ calls for charges against Bangladeshi journalist to be dropped New York, May 24, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Bangladesh to drop sedition charges against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor and publisher of the now-defunct weekly […]

(RSF/IFEX) – Reacting to threats and physical attacks against four journalists in the space of a week, RSF has condemned the inaction of Bangladeshi authorities and reiterated its appeal to Interior Minister Lutfozzaman Babor for concrete measures against those instigating the violence, whether political activists or ordinary criminals. On 7 May 2005, Waliur Rahman Raju, […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 2 May 2005 CPJ press release: BANGLADESH: Journalist released on bail after 17 months behind bars New York, May 2, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release on bail Saturday of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor and publisher of the now-defunct weekly tabloid Blitz. Choudhury spent […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 20 April 2005, a judge in Bhomra provisionally released French documentary filmmaker Arnaud Mandagaran while he awaits the outcome of an alleged visa violation case against him. On 19 April, police had returned him from Dhaka, where he was being questioned, to Bhomra where he had been arrested on 14 April. Mandagaran […]

(WAN/IFEX) – In a 19 April 2005 letter to Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, WAN and the World Editors Forum (WEF) expressed serious concern over the apparent impunity enjoyed by the murderers of journalist Kamal Hossein. On 22 August 2004, Hossein, a correspondent for the daily newspaper “Ajker Kagoj” and secretary general of the Manikchhari […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has condemned the 14 April 2005 arrest of French documentary filmmaker Arnaud Mandagaran for an alleged visa violation after he re-entered Bangladesh from India. The organisation called for his immediate release. “His arrest and detention, which could continue for seven days during the wait for an administrative decision, is an aberration and […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: BANGLADESH: Journalists found guilty of contempt New York, March 21, 2005 – The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today’s High Court conviction of seven editors, publishers and reporters from the Bangla-language daily Prothom Alo and the Bangla-language daily Bhorer Kagoj for publishing disputed reports about a […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed renewed concern over working conditions for the media after at least five journalists in southern Bangladesh received death threats during the week of 6 to12 March 2005. The organisation called on Interior Minister Lutfozzaman Babor to provide protection to journalists who “are impeded from carrying out their work if they […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: BANGLADESH: Three journalists receive death threats New York, March 14, 2005 – Three journalists in the southeastern city of Chittagong received letters containing death threats from a group identifying itself as the student wing of the fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami Party. Journalists Sumi Khan, Samaresh Baidya, and Jubayer […]

(RSF/IFEX) – A Khulna police officer, Mofazzal Hossain, was arrested on 16 February 2005 for suspected collusion with armed Maoist militants who have carried out a number of bombings, including the recent attack on the Khulna Press Club. On 14 February, a police unit from the capital, Dhaka, surprised the officer in the company of […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 22 February 2005 CPJ press release: BANGLADESH: Authorities proceed in sedition case against journalist New York, February 22, 2005 – The Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has issued a “charge sheet” against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor and publisher of the tabloid weekly Blitz, a critical step in bringing […]

(RSF/IFEX) – On 11 February 2005, the Maoist extremist group Purba Bangla Communist Party (PBCP) claimed responsibility for a 5 February bomb attack outside the Khulna Press Club in southwest Bangladesh that fatally wounded journalist Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed and injured three others. A letter signed by the group’s regional leader, Sayeed Hasan Suman, was left […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF says it is deeply saddened by the death of journalist Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed of the daily “Sangram”, six days after he was critically wounded in a bomb attack on the Khulna Press Club, in southwest Bangladesh. Ahmed, aged 48, died on 11 February 2005 in the intensive care unit of a Dhaka […]

(RSF/IFEX) – A police officer assigned to the Sadar police station in Khulna was fired for “negligence” on 6 February 2005, the day after the bombing at the Khulna Press Club in which four journalists were wounded, two seriously. The dismissal came the same day that journalists demonstrated in Khulna to demand the replacement of […]

(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed outrage after four journalists were wounded, two very seriously, in a 5 February 2005 bomb attack on the press club in Khulna, southwestern Bangladesh. Two of the injured journalists remain hospitalised. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. RSF called on Interior Minister Lutfozzaman Babor to do everything possible […]

(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: Bangladeshi intelligence agents search for The New York Times sources New York, January 28, 2005 – Intelligence agents have been assigned to look for anyone who might have provided interviews or information for the January 23 New York Times article on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism […]