Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to condemn the recent murder of journalist Harunur Rashid. We urge you to ensure that the murder investigation is conducted in a thorough and impartial manner. On the evening of March 2, Rashid, a reporter for the daily newspaper Dainik Purbanchal, was ambushed by gunmen while he was riding his motorcycle to work in the southwestern city of Khulna, according to Bangladeshi and international news reports. Three unidentified young men brought Rashid to a hospital, told doctors he had been injured in a car accident, and then disappeared. A doctor at the hospital told The Independent (a Dhaka-based newspaper) that Rashid suffered a fatal bullet wound to his chest.
New York, February 7, 2002—On February 5, explosions from several homemade bombs rocked the area surrounding the Chittagong Press Club, where journalist Shahriar Kabir was attending a reception to celebrate his release on bail. One bystander was killed in the attack, and several others were injured. Kabir was not harmed. Kabir, a documentary filmmaker, regular…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed by the frequency and severity of violent attacks against journalists in Bangladesh, and urges your government to take immediate action to ensure that these crimes are prosecuted vigorously.
FACING ROUTINE THREATS, HARASSMENT, AND OTHER ATTACKS, Bangladeshi journalists continued to work at great risk as political and criminal violence went unchecked. Two journalists were assassinated: Mir Illias Hossain, editor of the newspaper Dainik Bir Darpan, and Shamsur Rahman, a senior correspondent for the national daily Janakantha and a frequent contributor to the BBC’s Bengali-language…
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by your administration’s multi-pronged attack against the Bengali-language daily newspaper Inqilab, which has been accused of treason for publishing a parody of the Bangladesh national anthem.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is greatly alarmed that a minister in your government has threatened journalists reporting in the flood-ravaged district of Satkhira, where two journalists were attacked recently for their coverage of the misuse of disaster relief funds.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemns yesterday’s assassination of veteran journalist Shamsur Rahman, special correspondent of the Bengali-language national daily Janakantha, and urges your government to ensure that the perpetrators of this terrible crime are brought to justice.
By Kavita Menon and A. Lin NeumannMuch of Asia remained hostile to a free, independent media, despite the growing consensus that Asian political and economic stability depends in great measure on governments’ willingness to improve transparency and lift restrictions on the press. In China, Burma, Vietnam, and even Malaysia, government suppression of the media is…