This
paper was presented on the auspices of World
Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2003 organised
by Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism
and Communication (BCDJC) held at CIRDAB
auditorium, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
press is apparently a threat to the pro-Islamic
and pro-rightist elements in the society.
After the combined political exercise of
the pro-right and Islamic alliance catapulted
their comeback to the helms of affairs of
the country, they instead pose bigger risk
to the press.
Coupled
with growing democratic intolerance, criminalisation
of politics and high level of corruption
the toll on the journalists under Prime
Minister Begum Khaleda Zia’s government
was exceptionally heavy. The government’s
coalition of pro-right and pro-Islamist
further pushed the political hierarchy to
a greater intolerance toward the independent
press, specially newspapers which upheld
Bangladesh’s secular traditions.
The
newspapers, journalists and columnists ascertained
traditional secular believes were targeted
by the government’s since the coalition
of pro-right and pro-Islamic came to power
in October 2001. The worst experience where
those who exposed the identity of the war
criminals of during the bloody war of independence
of Bangladesh in 1971 and covered by civil
society’s demand for trial of war
criminals.
The
government’s acute paranoia contributed
to the already existing level of violence
against journalists. At least 250 journalists
were assaulted or threatened with deaths,
three journalists murdered, 30 newspaper
offices or press clubs attacked and 25 journalists
detained, later released by the authorities
in 12 months, Bangladesh is by far the world’s
most violent country for journalists, remarked
Reporters Sans Frontières Report
on 2002.
Political
partisans and gangs having links with ruling
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the
lead partner in the coalition government
were responsible for most of the attacks
on journalists during 2002 and even early
period of this year. The client-patron relationship
with the ruling class and the press has
unable to dent the existing pattern which
seems to have come to stay for year to come.
The
incidents of the attack on journalists,
newspapers and press clubs by ruling party
militants was never denied. In several incidents
the ruling party leaders in district towns
has sought apology of the incidents which
also appeared in newspapers. The ruling
party leaders took up the incidents after
they were embarrassed by press reports and
agitation by local journalists bodies.
For
Bangladeshi journalists, covering crime
and corruption can be as dangerous as reporting
in a war zone. Journalists regularly endure
vicious attacks, intimidation and repression
and since 1998, five Bangladeshi journalists
have been killed in reprisal for journalistic
work.
A
New York based media watchdog Committee
to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in their world
report 2002 say that all of the five murdered
journalists were in frontier towns in southwest
an organised crime-ridden area rife with
extremists groups, gunrunners, and smuggling
syndicates.
Bangladesh
was ranked 118th in RSF Press Freedom Index.
Bangladesh was among the worst in South
Asia, next to Nepal (127), Pakistan (119)
and Sri Lanka (51).
Nonetheless,
Bangladesh’s media landscape was never
so diverse during autocratic regimes until
1990. The top five dailies in circulation
included pro-secular and independent press.
The democratisation process has significantly
encouraged the growth of pro-secular and
independent press. Not predicted by media
specialists, the secular and independent
press enjoys overwhelming confidence of
the civil society and also people who matter
in the society. The pro-Islamic and pro-government
newspapers are gradually loosing trust of
the people.
On
the other hand, the closure of the first
private Ekushey TV (ETV), after a controversial
court decision was a major blow to diversity
in the broadcast media. The electronic media
including satellite Channel-I and ATN broadcasts
added to the existing secular media.
The
April 4 edition of the Far Eastern Economic
Review featured a cover story branding Bangladesh
a “Cocoon of Terror” and warned
the “rising fundamentalism and religious
intolerance are threatening secularism and
moderate Islam.” The government declared
the publication, sale, reprinting, and preservation
of the issue illegal. The Hong Kongbased
magazine, which ordinarily has a very small
readership in Bangladesh, did not appear
on newsstands but was accessible on the
internet.
In
August, a religious group and instigated
by the Islami Oikya Jote, a coalition partner
called for the arrest for blasphemy of anyone
involved with a play staged in the town
of Faridpur, in southwest about life of
Prophet Muhammad. Police arrested the playwright,
as well as two journalists Amalesh Rai and
Alokesh Rai suspected to have written the
drama. Several Hindu journalists in Faridpur
town received death threats, and a group
armed with machetes and axes attacked one
reporter after he publicly criticised the
protestors.
In
October, TIME magazine reported that Taliban
and Al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan had
sought refuge in Bangladesh. In the report,
Time noted that “the Bangladeshi government
typically reacts with fury to reports of
Jihadi camps or fundamentalism within its
borders.” Foreign Secretary Shamser
Mobin Chowdhury called the report “irresponsible
and malicious” and suggested it was
part of “an orchestrated campaign
designed to malign the country’s international
image as a liberal democratic country.”
At
the end of 2002 a wave of arrests of journalists
linked to the “international conspiracy”
were detained including two foreign journalists.
The government exploited patriotic sentiment
to convince the population that certain
Bangladeshi and foreign journalists were
trying to destabilise the country by exposing
the rise of Islamist. Those who contradicted
were subjected to harassment and intimidation
with the support of pro-Islamic and pro-ruling
party press.
In
November, authorities detained two Channel-4
TV crew Zaiba Malik (British) and Bruno
Sorrentino (Italian) preparing a documentary
on “Unreported World” on secularism
to Islamification were accused of sedition.
The Home Ministry said that the journalists
were arrested for their “malicious
intent of portraying Bangladesh as an Islamic
fanatical country.” They were released
after 16 days and were deported after signing
a statement agreeing not to use any of their
footage from Bangladesh. However, journalists
Priscila Raj and RSF correspondent Saleem
Samad, who had worked for the Channel 4
TV crew as interpreter and fixer, were also
detained and charged with involvement in
“anti-state activities.”
Soon
Shahriar Kabir, a documentary filmmaker,
columnist of the largest circulated daily
Janakantha, and author of several books
about Bangladesh’s war crimes, had
been put behind bars in November 2001, for
“anti-state activities.” Officials
arrested him at the Dhaka airport upon his
return from India, where he had interviewed
Hindu religious minority who fled there
following reprisals against their community
after the October 1, 2001, parliamentary
elections. Once again Shahriar Kabir was
arrested in mid December and authorities
said that he was being held in connection
with a sedition case against two journalists
of Channel 4.
Prof.
Muntassir Mamun, a columnist and historian,
were among several prominent government
critics arrested on December 8 in the capital,
Dhaka. He had been outspoken of war crimes
committed by pro-Islamist elements presently
with the coalition government led by Begum
Khaleda Zia. He was held under sedition
laws of trying to destabilise the government.
Police
also arrested Enamul Haque Chowdhury, a
reporter for the officials newsagency Bangladesh
Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) and also stringer
for Reuters news service, for allegedly
fabricating comments, attributed to the
home minister, that Al-Qaeda may have been
responsible for a series of bombings on
December 7, 2002, that killed at least 17
people in Mymensingh.
Nonetheless,
the secular and independent press is experiencing
the wraths of the pro-right and pro-Islamist
coalition government. The repressive measures
were spontaneous when the journalists exposed
the bad governance of the democratically
elected representatives of parliament, municipality
and even the lowest tier of local government
Union Parishad. The government and pro-Islamist
parties do not hesitate to brand any newspaper
as “anti-state” when they criticise
“Islamification” of cultural
traditions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saleem Samad, an Ashoka Fellow (USA) is
a journalist, press watchdog and correspondent
of Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières
(RSF), Paris, Special Correspondent of Bangladesh
OBSERVER and Daily TIMES (Lahore). A regular
contributor for South Asia Tribune, OneWorld.Net,
South Asia magazine (Karachi) and Combat
Communalism (Mumbai). He is Media Consultant
for BCDJC.
