The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) joins the United Nations in condemning the protracted persecution of journalists and human rights defenders in Bangladesh. It is in particular reference to journalist Rozina Islam, who, in 2021 reported corruption in the Ministry of Health in procuring and dispensing Covid-19 vaccinations. She was arrested and kept under confinement even after the investigation found no wrongdoing by her. The Ministry continued to pursue the case to prosecute Ms. Islam.
“The protracted nature of Rozina Islam’s case,” said a group UN expert, “reflects a dangerous trend in Bangladesh and beyond to bring serious charges, often on unsubstantiated grounds, against journalists and editors and then leave the cases hanging unresolved in the judicial process as a way of threatening, intimidating, harassing and silencing them.”
Bangladesh suffers one of the worst media freedoms since Sheikh Hasina was installed as Prime Minister in 2009 through reported India-induced voter frauds. The French Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) puts Bangladesh at 162, out of 180, in media freedoms. Recently, the country has blocked 191 websites on alleged but unsubstantiated grounds of anti-state activities. Under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA), and doggedly enforced by the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police, slightest criticism of the regime, even a parody line on the Sheikh family, is not tolerated. Hundreds, including minors, have suffered under the DSA, a few succumbing to the police torture.
On December 22 2022, Aua Balde, Chairman of the UN Rapporteur of the Working Group of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) alarmed Bangladesh against smear campaigns and “harassment and intimidation against Odhikar and Mayer Dak, two well-known human rights groups in the country, as well as for use of excessive and lethal force” by police against opposition political activists. A week earlier, on December 14, Ambassador Peter Haas of the U.S. came under attack by the ruling thugs while visiting the victims of Mayer Dak, a rights group of the enforced disappearances.
The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh urges the government of Bangladesh to stop such practices and allow freedom of expression by the media and the people, as guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Bangladesh is a signatory: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
*The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) is a nonprofit organization registered and based in the United States (www.chrdbangladesh.org).
March 3, 2023
