Bangladesh / Asia

MARCH 10, 2005 Posted: March 14, 2005 Sumi Khan, Weekly 2000 Samaresh Baidya, Bhorer Kagoj Jubayer Siddiqui, Ajker Surjodoy THREATENED Khan, Baidya, and Siddiqui each received similar letters within three days of one another, Baidya told CPJ.

MARCH 4, 2005 Posted: April 1, 2005 Andoloner BazarTHREATENED The entire 25-member staff of the Kushtia-based daily Andoloner Bazar filed a memorandum with the district deputy commissioner of police seeking protection on March 15. The editor, Manjur Ehsan Chowdhury, signed the memo in which the journalists claimed that they have been harassed and under constant…

FEBRUARY 23, 2005 Posted: March 28, 2005 Al-Mamun Sagar, Jugantor ATTACKED, THREATENED Members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s youth wing, the Jatiyiatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), beat Al-Mamun Sagar, a correspondent for the daily Jugantor.

New York, February 22, 2005—The Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has issued a “charge sheet” against Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor and publisher of the tabloid weekly Blitz, a critical step in bringing the journalist to trial on sedition and anti-state allegations that could lead to the death penalty. The charge sheet discloses details of…

FEBRUARY 11, 2005 Posted: February 14, 2005 Sheikh Belaluddin, Sangram KILLED—CONFIRMED Belaluddin, a correspondent with the Bengali-language daily Sangram, died at around 10 a.m. of injuries sustained in a bomb attack on February 5. The bomb exploded at a press club in the city of Khulna. The bomb, which was hidden in a bag hanging…

New York, February 11, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists mourns the death of Bangladeshi journalist Sheikh Belaluddin, who died at around 10 a.m. today of injuries sustained in a bomb attack last week. Belaluddin, a correspondent with the Bengali-language daily Sangram, was injured along with three other journalists on February 5, when a bomb exploded…

FEBRUARY 3, 2005 Posted April 1, 2005 Shafiul Haque Mithu, Janakantha THREATENED Mithu, the local correspondent for the Bangla-language daily Janakantha in the southwestern town of Priojpur, received anonymous threats over his cell phone on February 3 and 4, according to reports in Janakantha and the popular daily Prothom Alo. Mithu filed a report with…

FEBRUARY 1, 2005 Posted: March 7, 2005 Ram Krishna Chakraborty, Jugantor Mizanur Rahman, Janakantha Kalyan Banerji, Prothom Alo Anisur Rahim, Satkhira Chitra Abul Kalam Azad, Patradut Suvash Choudhury, Bhorer Kagoj

New York, January 28, 2005—Intelligence agents have been assigned to look for anyone who might have provided interviews or information for the January 23 New York Times article on the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh, according to a Bangladeshi intelligence source quoted in the Dhaka-based newspaper The Daily Star. The search has been extended…

Around the world, 122 journalists were in prison at the end of 2004 for practicing their profession, 16 fewer than the year before. International advocacy campaigns, including those waged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, helped win the early release of a number of imprisoned journalists, notably six independent writers and reporters in Cuba.