New York, October 4, 2004—Assailants wielding knives and traditional axes brutally murdered the executive editor of the Bangla-language daily, Durjoy Bangla, late Saturday night in the latest fatal attack on the press in Bangladesh, according to local journalists and press accounts. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating the potential motives behind the slaying to…
New York, September 14, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the violent attacks by pro-government activists on at least eight journalists covering demonstrations on the Dhaka University campus in the capital, Dhaka, last Saturday, September 11. Members of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s youth wing, the Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), went on a rampage around…
New York, August 25, 2004—Kamal Hossain, the local correspondent for the Bangla-language daily Ajker Kagoj, was abducted and brutally murdered by unknown assailants in the early morning of Sunday, August 22, in Manikcchari, eastern Chittagong District, according to local news reports. The newswire service the United News of Bangladesh (UNB) reported that police discovered Hossain’s…
New York, August 23, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the growing number of threats being made against the popular Bangla-language daily Prothom Alo by Islamic groups in the capital, Dhaka, and in the southeastern Chittagong District. The threats began last week in the wake of Prothom Alo’s investigative series about…
New York, July 13, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed by the rapidly growing number of death threats against journalists and writers throughout Bangladesh. Since July 10, at least 24 journalists and writers have received death threats, all apparently from Islamic groups who accuse them of being “enemies of Islam” or “acting against…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the ongoing imprisonment of Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, the editor and publisher of the tabloid weekly Blitz, who was jailed on sedition charges. We call for his immediate and unconditional release.
New York, June 28, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s murder of Humayun Kabir, editor of the Bangla-language daily Janmabhumi, who was killed in a bomb attack in the southwestern city of Khulna. At around 12 p.m., an unidentified assailant threw two bombs at Kabir outside his home while he was exiting his…
New York, NY, June 24, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns the recent attack on two journalists by prison guards at a district jail in Satkhira, a town in southwestern Bangladesh. On June 22, Mozaffar Rahman, a reporter with the local Bengali-language daily Patradut, and Monirul Islam Moni, a photographer with Patradut, were assaulted…
New York, June 8, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns two recent police attacks on journalists covering street demonstrations in connection with a nationwide antigovernment strike, or hartal. On Friday, June 4, the eve of the strike, police assaulted photojournalists who were covering a protest march led by supporters of the opposition Awami League…