New
York, November 26, 2002--The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the arrest
in Bangladesh yesterday of three journalists
working on a documentary for Britain's Channel
4 "Unreported World" series.
Reporter
Zaiba Malik, director and cameraman Bruno
Sorrentino, and Priscilla Raj, a free-lance
journalist working for the documentary team
as an interpreter, were taken into custody
along with their driver, Misir Ali.
Malik,
who is British, and Sorrentino, who was
traveling on an Italian passport, were arrested
at the Benapole border crossing en route
to India.
Raj and Ali, who are both Bangladeshi nationals,
were picked up in Rajbari District on their
way back to the capital, Dhaka.
Malik,
Sorrentino, and Raj appeared in court today
in Dhaka and were remanded to police custody
for five days for further investigation.
The team is accused of sedition. Police
are seeking to arrest a fourth journalist,
Saleem Samad, who was also working for the
documentary team as an interpreter. Samad,
a prominent free-lance journalist and media
activist, is the local representative for
the Paris-based press freedom organization
Reporters Sans Frontières.
The
journalists were arrested for alleged involvement
in "clandestine activities as journalists
with an apparent and malicious intent of
portraying Bangladesh as an Islamic fanatical
country," said a statement issued today
by the Bangladeshi government, according
to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Foreign
correspondents and local journalists who
work with international news organizations
perceive the arrests as a government warning.
"These
draconian government actions against journalists
threaten Bangladesh's reputation as a liberal
democracy," said CPJ executive director
Ann Cooper. "We are extremely worried
about the climate of intolerance signaled
by these detentions. It is unfortunate that
these arrests come as CPJ is honoring Bangladeshi
journalist Tipu Sultan with an International
Press Freedom Award."
Prime
Minister Khaleda Zia personally congratulated
Sultan for this honor and has pledged to
uphold press freedom. Sultan will be receiving
CPJ's award at a formal ceremony tonight
in New York that will be attended by major
U.S. media organizations.
The
Bangladeshi government has reacted harshly
to media reports focusing on controversial
topics such as sectarian violence and the
influence of Islamist militants in the country.
At the end of 2001, documentary filmmaker
and activist Shahriar Kabir was arrested
on sedition charges and imprisoned for nearly
two months after reporting on a wave of
attacks against Bangladesh's Hindu minority.
Kabir was released on bail at the end of
January, but the charges against him have
not been dropped.
In
April, the government banned an edition
of The Far Eastern Economic Review that
featured a cover story describing Bangladesh
as a "Cocoon of Terror" and warning
that "rising fundamentalism and religious
intolerance are threatening secularism and
moderate Islam" in Bangladesh.
In
October, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson
said that a Time magazine story reporting
that Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters had sought
refuge in Bangladesh was part of "an
orchestrated campaign designed to malign
the country's international image as a liberal
democratic country."
CPJ
is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit
organization that works to safeguard press
freedom worldwide. For more information
about press conditions in Bangladesh, visit
http://www.cpj.org.
==========
Committee to Protect Journalists
330 Seventh Avenue -- 12th floor
New York, NY 10001, phone: 212-465-1004
e-mail: info@cpj.org, http://www.cpj.org
