New York, May 31, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled by attacks on journalists and a newspaper in the town of Kushtia in western Bangladesh. Witnesses told local media that about 20 men, whom they recognized as activists from the ruling Bangladesh National Party (BNP), attacked the offices of Quality Press on Wednesday, damaging…
APRIL 16, 2006 Posted: April 25, 2006 Shamsul Haq Tunku, Prothom Alo Anurup Titu, Dainik Purbokon And about 50 other journalists ATTACKED Senior sports photographer Shamsul Haq Tunku of the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo was “accosted, thrown to the ground, kicked and beaten” by police, according to The Australian reporter Andrew Ramsey, for using the…
New York, April 4, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Bangladeshi authorities to dismiss sedition charges against journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury whose trial begins April 5 in Dhaka’s Additional Metropolitan Session Court. Sedition carries the death penalty. Choudhury, editor of the Bangladesh tabloid weekly Blitz, was originally charged with passport violations after he…
New York, March 3, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by sedition charges pending against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the tabloid weekly Blitz. Choudhury, who spent 17 months in jail before his release on bail in May 2005, is due to be tried in a Dhaka court next week. Choudhury told…
New York, February 17, 2006— The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Bangladeshi authorities to fully investigate the bomb attack on Mahfuz Mamun and Babul Ahmed, writers for the daily Dainik Mathabhanga. Media reports in Bangladesh said the two men had written stories on drug trafficking for their paper a few weeks before the February…
By Ann CooperOn May 2, when the Committee to Protect Journalists identified the Philippines as the world’s most murderous country for journalists, the reaction was swift. “Exaggerated,” huffed presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye, who was practiced at dismissing the mounting evidence. He had called an earlier CPJ analysis of the dangers to Philippine journalists “grossly misplaced…
BANGLADESH Bangladesh was mired in a political crisis heightened by the wide-scale August 17 attacks by Islamic militants involving hundreds of small, near-simultaneous bombings throughout the nation. Journalists covering the bombings and their aftermath said they were more vulnerable than ever to violent reprisals. Bangladesh was already one of the most dangerous countries for the…