Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) expresses grave concern and strongly condemns the incident on assaulting six Journalists of the private television channel-Ekushey Television by the Interns of Dhaka Mitford Hospital.

It has been reported by different media that reporters as well as videographers of Ekushey television went to Dhaka Mitford Hospital on 19 April 2014 to cover a program. Later they were attacked and beaten; their cameras were broken by the interns of the hospital. The Journalists were also confined for several hours and was freed after a negotiation between the hospital and television channel authorities. Later on, the injured journalists received primary treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

We have been observing that these kinds of attacks as well as threats on Journalists at different places of the country have taken an increasing toll in recent times. ASK expresses grave concern over the situation of media personnel being attacked. Measures to stop recurrence of such incidents should be taken without any delay.

We urge that the concerned authority will pay sincere attention to deal with this issue and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to book.

Medical Interns assaulted six journalists of Ekushey Television at Mitford Hospital in Dhaka on 19th April 2014. [See News Story] 

The interns broke the cameras and attacked the journalists in the morning when they went to the hospital to collect information and footage of various irregularities for a crime-based programme titled ‘Ekushey-er Chokh’.