Attacks on the Press 2007: Bangladesh
BANGLADESH Despite stated commitments to democratic reform and media freedom, Bangladesh’s military-backed government dealt a series of crippling blows to what had been one of the freest presses in Asia. Operating under an official state of emergency and faced with a series of written orders and verbal directives governing media coverage, a famously voluble press…
CPJ concerned about Bangladeshi reporter’s trial
Dear Mr. President: The Committee to Protect Journalists is greatly concerned about the upcoming trial of Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for the Bengali-language daily Dainik Sangbad, based in Rajshahi.He is charged with extortion, but we believe Akash has been unfairly targeted because of his investigative reporting, and we are greatly concerned about his health.
In Bangladesh, investigative reporter beaten in custody
New York, October 26, 2007—A Bangladeshi journalist arrested Tuesday has been beaten in jail, his wife told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Jahangir Alam Akash was arrested at his home in Rajshahi on extortion charges. Akash was taken to the prison hospital on Thursday with leg injuries, his wife told local journalist Shahriar Kabir and…
Investigative reporter detained in Bangladesh
New York, October 24, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the detention of Bangladeshi reporter Jahangir Alam Akash, who was taken from his home in the northwestern city of Rajshahi by members of an elite government task force on Tuesday night. Akash, a reporter for the Bengali-language daily Dainik Sangbad, was jailed on…
Satellite news channel shut for seven days
September 6, 2006 Posted: September 11, 2007 Chrono Satellite Broadcast (CSB) News SHUTDOWN The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC) ordered CSB to close for seven days. BTRC said a document applying for a frequency in October 2006 was forged in order to meet a filing deadline. BTRC officials and security personnel walked in to the…
CPJ concerned by restrictions on media coverage of Bangladesh crisis
New York, August 23, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by reports of the assault, detention, and harassment of local journalists by security forces attempting to enforce the indefinite curfew imposed yesterday on the capital, Dhaka, and five other cities in response to growing unrest across the country. CPJ is also deeply concerned about…
In Bangladesh, a prominent journalist is taken in military raid
New York, May 11, 2007—Plainclothes officers raided the Dhaka home of prominent journalist and human rights advocate Tasneem Khalil early this morning in an action that the Committee to Protect Journalists called “an indication of the fragile state of press freedom in Bangladesh.” Four men identifying themselves as a “joint task force” came to Khalil’s…
TV journalist in Bangladesh claims threat from police commander
New York, May 4, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by a claim that a television journalist was threatened by an elite police force commander after reporting on a police raid on the home of a political activist. ` Jahangir Alam Akash, a reporter for CSB News, said he was threatened over the telephone…