Ain o Salish Kendra strongly protests over the beating of Jewel Sheel, a photojournalist at daily Prothom Alo, by local Chatra League activists in Chittagong.

According to media reports, Jewel Sheel was attacked as he was taking photographs on the beating of a motorcycle rider from the Chatra League procession at Chittagong city’s Prabartak intersection on 17 February 2016.

It was reported by the media that Chittagong Medical College Chhatra League unit activists attacked the motorcycle rider and captured video footage of the act on mobile phone. At one stage, they grabbed photojournalist Jewel’s camera, deleted the pictures he had taken and threatened him not to reveal this incident.

We think that this kind of behaviour with on-duty Journalists is the attack on freedom of press, i.e. freedom of expression. This kind of attack, especially by activists of the ruling party, is a heinous one. We have, on different occasions, demanded that effective steps be taken for allowing the mass media to work independently and to exercise freedom, but it has not been implemented yet.

This is our apprehension that there will be more incidents on violation of constitutional rights like press freedom and freedom of expression if such situation continues.

We call on the government and others concerned to take quick and effective measures in this regard.