Press Freedom in 2003: Ominous Signs for the Future

Tapas Kanti Baul *

This is an excerpt from human Rights in Bangladesh 2003, published by ASK.

In 2003 the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)¹ declared Bangladesh to be one of the most violent places in the world for reporters ². Indeed, investigative journalism has become an increasingly hazardous occupation in the country. A survey of events during the year points not only to the dangers of reporting certain kinds of news but also to the overall environment of fear in which the media must operate. The State and its functionaries are the most obvious source of media censorship, harassment and repression. However, as many of the incidents reported below make clear, a variety of non-state actors also have a stake in suppressing the activities of journalists. Steady criminalisation of the political and economic landscape explains much of the violence and brutality experienced by members of the press in 2003. Pervasive corruption at all levels has also become a fundamental barrier to press freedom. The problem is not so much of draconian or oppressive laws - although existing laws are not exactly liberal - but more that extralegal measures and illegal forms of intimidation, coercion and violence are routinely used by the State and others to silence the press.

"The Special Powers Act of 1974 introduced certain restrictions on the activities of journalists; among other things, they were bound by that law to reveal their sources of information³." Subsequently, these provisions were removed by an interim Caretaker Government ⁴. At the time jurists and journalists hailed the move as an important step toward establishing the freedom of press, one that underwrote citizens' rights to free speech and expression. However, that 'giant leap' proved to be inadequate in protecting the rights of journalists and the freedom of the press. The main difference between present trends of harassment, intimidation, and assaults on journalists and those in the past appears to be that earlier a formal legal bar existed while now many measures to curb the work of journalists are extralegal or carry only the veneer of legality.

Throughout 2003, journalists were routinely harassed, intimidated or physically assaulted in the course of their work. There were almost daily cases of physical assaults and intimidation, particularly in rural areas ⁵. Not surprisingly, those journalists who reported on political violence, official corruption and organized crimes were prime targets for reprisal - by the police and the armed forces, by political cadres affiliated with the ruling coalition, and by underworld criminal gangs who themselves often had ties to parties in power. Few journalists had recourse to the law to protect themselves. On the contrary, many found that upon publishing stories that incriminated powerful interest groups, false cases were lodged against them in turn.

Law Enforcement Agencies

Although their mission is to protect citizens, members of law enforcement agencies - the army, the Bangladesh Rifles, and the various intelligences agencies - frequently function as handmaidens of the government and the ruling party. In 2003, at least 34 incidents ⁶ took place in which members of state agencies, often in conjunction with other government personnel, persecuted journalists whose reports potentially threatened their self-interest. The police have an especially bad record in this respect.

Fabricating charges against journalists in retaliation for unearthing potentially damaging information is a common method of harassment. A typical incident took place on 6 March when the O.C. of Araihazar thana under Narayanganj District on 6 March threatened to lodge a false case against the local representative of the Bengali newspaper, Sangbad, after the latter questioned him about the release of two known criminals. Not only that, the O.C. is also reported to have threatened to break the legs of all journalists in the area⁷. Intimidation in other forms also took place during the year. After Akkas Sikder, a reporter for the local newspaper Dainik Barta wrote of the corruption of an SP in the southern district of Jhalakathi, he was arrested and kept in isolation for a month. Although the police failed to provide any immediate reason for arresting him, they later claimed he had been arrested as an accused in a murder case⁸ . The charges were eventually dropped.

On 6 August, two journalists were reportedly assaulted by the members of the Bangladesh Rifles in Akhaura Rail Station. The journalists, Kazi Mofiqul Islam Tuhin of Al-Mujadded and Md. Manik Mian of Sangbad, had photographed BDR Jawans beating with their rifle butts several women who had been caught smuggling Indian sugar into the country ⁹. BDR officials later denied the entire incident¹⁰. Mahmudul Huq, an editor and journalist from Sitakunda, in the southeastern district of Chittagong, was imprisoned for several weeks in May for extortion, after he exposed local political corruption. ¹¹

In a bid to contain spiraling violent crime, the Government launched a massive crackdown, 'Operation Clean Heart', in 2002. To this end, the government called on the military, giving it broad powers with minimal accountability. Amidst protests about the large number of deaths in custody, the army was withdrawn in January 2003. It was replaced fairly soon by a paramilitary task force which appeared to have even more unchecked power, for it possessed the authority to shoot on sight.

At least one victim of this military taskforce with unrestrained powers was a journalist. On 8 August, Hiraman Mondol, a correspondent of the Khulna-based daily Probartan was brutally assaulted by members of the Joint Forces deployed there following Operation Clean Heart Mondol had reported on the conduct of some Joint Forces members who had seized fish from a local market but refused to pay for the goods. Following publication of the news item, some soldiers beat Mondol with rifles and hockey sticks. The joint forces took him into custody, charged him with extortion and handed him over to the local police¹². Two international organizations, Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned these actions and demanded the immediate release of the innocent journalist¹³. Mondol was eventually tried and acquitted. He was freed six weeks after his arrest but claims he still feels threatened¹⁴.

The intimidation and harassment of journalists by state agencies was indirect on occasion. On 13 March, a group of men who identified themselves as officials of the Cantonment demolished a wall adjoining the residence of the editor of Janakantha, Mr. Mohammad Atikullah. They did so without prior notice and without offering any justification or showing a legal order for the demolition. As it happens, the house had been constructed over two decades ago in accordance with the rules of the Cantonment at the time. Commentators allege that the government, which has tried repeatedly to silence Janakantha, a vocal critic of the present regime, resorted to the demolition as an indirect way to harass and intimidate those associated with the paper ¹⁵.

On a different level, a high profile case originating in 2002 continued to unfold in 2003. Journalist Enamul Haque Chowdhury, the local Reuters representative who had been arrested the previous December recanted an earlier confessionary statement on 16 March. Haque was arrested for allegedly misreporting a phone conversation he had had with the then Home Minister, in which he quoted the Minister as saying the role of al-Qaeda in the bombing of a local cinema hall could not be ruled out ¹⁶. When he was finally presented before a Magistrate, Haque claimed that the Detective Branch of the police had tortured him into a false confession, in which he denied having had the conversation with the Home Minister. He maintained his innocence, stating he had been made to sign the confession literally with a pistol to his head and without examining the contents of the document. Haque also claimed that while he was in police custody, he was beaten so brutally that at one stage he lost consciousness. He was also subjected to electric shocks. It was only when the lives of his wife and daughter were threatened and he could no longer tolerate the pain that he agreed to the false confession. Enamul Haque was released on bail in March, 2003. Reuters was forced to retract the story and apologise to the Government.

The end of the year was marked by the tragic death of journalist Amar Das of Chittagong on December 10, 2003 at the Coronary Unit of Chittagong Medical College Hospital. He had been arrested and interrogated by the police in a high profile kidnapping case of a prominent businessman, Jamaluddin Ahmed Chowdhury. According to the police report, Das fell ill during interrogation and was rushed to the Medical College Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. An unnamed coronary unit specialist noted that if hot water is poured into the nostrils, the heart may not function properly because of asphyxia, which may have been one of the reasons behind Amar Das's death ¹⁷.

In another incident, this time in Satkhira, the District Commissioner reprimanded a photo-journalist from a local newspaper, and also threatened to have the paper banned, apparently because he was antagonistic towards the print media in general. The journalist had been assigned to report on the Annual General Meeting of Satkhira Government Service Holders Cooperative Ltd ¹⁸.

Box III. I: No Protection, even from the Police¹⁹

On June 21, Mokhlesur Rahman, local correspondent of Prothom Alo, went to Dhamrai Police Station to get details on a story. Two ruling party activists were in the police station with the O.C. at the time. Both warned him that his life was in danger because of his reports against the ruling party. They demanded he stop such reporting immediately if he wanted to live. The incident took place in the presence of the O.C., who did not intervene. The later admitted that the journalist was threatened in his presence.

The Ruling Party

Members of the ruling party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and its coalition partners, routinely harassed journalists throughout the year. In most cases journalists became prey when they reported on the hooliganism and corruption of ruling party members. Journalists were often persecuted with the help of law enforcement agencies and, in some cases, with assistance from professional criminals.

After 'Operation Clean Heart' ended in January, Aminul Islam, General Secretary of Bhulta Union BNP under Rupganj Upazila of Narayanganj District, along with other party cadres, intercepted and assaulted two journalists of Jugantor and Manabjamin on their way home one night. Islam demanded to know why the two men in their news reports had represented his activities as hooliganism. He then viciously attacked both men. The two were finally rescued by the police ²⁰.

Journalists themselves are not always above partisan politics and occasionally find themselves persecuted because of their political allegiances. The Ittefaq's representative in Sitakundu, Atahar Siddiq Choudhury Khasru, was kidnapped by the Secretary of Sitakundu BNP Islam Secretary and his gang on 30 April. Allegedly, Islam Secretary suspected that the journalist was secretly allied with a rival BNP leader, Mahmudul Haque. Choudhury was released almost a month later on 21 May. During that period he was tortured in many different ways: he was left in a room blindfolded; served rotten and unhygienic food; and his skin was pierced with a sharp instrument. Choudhury eventually lodged a FIR with the local police station ²¹.

Student wings of political parties in power were also responsible for some of the violence against journalists in this year. On 19 June, in Shariatpur district, the local correspondent of the national Daily Janakantha, Abul Bashar, was kidnapped by Shariatpur JCD president and other cadres. The journalist not only worked for a newspaper that is known for being critical of the Government, he had also published an article documenting JCD attacks on local residents of Shariatpur. Bashar was taken to the District BNP headquarters, where armed party members shot him and beat him. He was critically injured in the spine, skull and eyes. Local people rescued him but the assault left one of his eyes badly damaged ²². Police refused to accept a case but eventually recorded Bashar's statements ²³.

On 23 July, a group of twenty JCD members viciously attacked Hasan Jahid Tusher in his room at a residential hall at Dhaka University. They beat Tusher with iron rods, critically injuring his back and shoulders. They then dragged him down three flights of stairs. A correspondent for the national newspaper Daily Star, Tusher had written various articles on the violent activities of the JCD ²⁴. Notably, by year's end, no arrest had been made in the attacks on Tusher and Bashar.

Indeed, the general attitude of the establishment toward journalists is one of mistrust and disdain. On 19 July, the State Minister for the Housing and Establishment Ministry, Alamgir Kabir, at a meeting in Rangpur called journalists 'liars' and ordered those journalists present to leave the meeting, he was addressing, immediately. Journalists and other professionals of Rangpur protested this attitude and staged a rally a in the city ²⁵.

In September, the wife of the mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation reportedly illegally took over the daily Prothom Provat, a local newspaper and changed the name of the newspaper overnight. This allegation was made by the editor of that daily while the wife of Mayor denied such allegation ²⁶.

After some journalists in Jhalakathi reported that a leader of the local chapter of the BNP had tortured a thikadar