Bangladesh should take urgent steps to protect freedom of expression

The U.N. Human Rights Council will convene in Geneva for its next session today. Ahead of this meeting, international groups working on press freedom and freedom of expression, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, made a joint submission to the council calling for urgent and concrete steps to reverse the deteriorating climate for free expression in Bangladesh.

A string of murders of bloggers and publishers since February 2015, for which no one has been convicted, has produced an atmosphere of fear. The mainstream press, meanwhile, continues to face an array of challenges, ranging from the imprisonment of journalists to legal threats.

The submission, made under Item 4 of the council’s agenda, according to which the council can look into human rights abuses in specific countries, is available here.