Several Bangladeshi journalists have faced serious criminal charges since the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government in August. This situation arouses concern among organizations defending press freedom.
What you need to know
- At the beginning of August, a vast popular uprising precipitated the fall of the authoritarian regime of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
- Journalists were subsequently accused of “complicity in murder” due to their alleged responsibility in the deaths of demonstrators shot dead by the police.
- Several organizations that defend press freedom believe that these procedures stem from a desire for “revenge” by the politician’s opponents.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is particularly alarmed by the case of a well-known journalist and presenter, Farzana Rupa, and her husband, Shakil Ahmed, also a journalist. The two spouses were apprehended by the authorities on August 21, as they were preparing to leave the country to go to France.
In a statement, RSF’s director of advocacy and assistance, Antoine Bernard, said the accusations of “complicity in murder” filed against them were “Kafkaesque” and worthy of the authoritarian practices of the former prime minister.
According to him, media professionals are the subject of a “cabal” fueled by the “need for revenge” of the politician’s opponents.
Sheikh Hasina fled the country in early August after protests over a job quota system favoring the families of independence war fighters turned into a widespread popular uprising.
PHOTO ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Journalists Shakil Ahmed (center, wearing helmet) and Farzana Rupa (back right, wearing helmet) in a Dhaka courtyard on August 22
The police killed “more than 600 people”, fueling legal complaints from victims’ families, who were brought forward to indict several people seen as being close to the former regime.
Many journalists whose work “was considered favorable to the previous government,” according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), were targeted during the process, including Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa, who worked for a private channel.
Beh Lih Yi, who heads CPJ’s Asian section, said the organization was “very concerned” about the proliferation of “baseless criminal accusations” against media representatives.
No journalist or media outlet, regardless of their ideological bent, should be sued for doing their job.
Beh Lih Yi, coordinator of the Asian section of the Committee to Protect Journalists
She noted that the interim government said it was committed to press freedom. “We would like this declaration to be implemented,” concluded Mr.me Well.
A “witch hunt”
The situation of Farzana Rupa particularly concerns Catherine Hébert, a Quebec documentary filmmaker who worked with the latter on several occasions in Bangladesh.
The journalist, she says, is a determined professional who has, over the years, multiplied her biting reports in an environment marked by strong political and media polarization.
Catherine Hébert said she was “very surprised” that the interim government, headed by Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner with significant support in the Western world, would allow “a witch hunt” of this nature.
The new executive claims that it has no business getting involved in legal affairs, which did not prevent one of its advisors from declaring that no journalist, poet or cultural personality who encouraged the repressive drift of the previous government would be protected from prosecution.
Mr. Yunus, an economist by training known for his work on microcredit, had often had trouble with the Sheikh Hasina regime.
Multiple legal proceedings, which he rejected as a form of political persecution, were launched against her while she was in power.
More than a hundred well-known political figures and Nobel Peace Prize winners, including former US President Barack Obama, co-signed a letter in 2023 to ask the regime to stop “judicial harassment” against by Mr. Yunus.
Deleterious climate
A member of Farzana Rupa’s family, who asked not to be identified out of concern for her personal safety, said the new government “found it useful to keep her behind bars” to prevent potentially embarrassing revelations.
“ [Le travail de Farzana Rupa] aroused a lot of hatred,” noted the interlocutor of The Press, specifying that the family had received several threatening messages in the weeks preceding their departure.
Several supporters of the new government were actively searching online to find the address of Farzana Rupa and her husband, who had taken steps with a press freedom organization to be able to relocate abroad.
They were turned back at the airport before being surrounded by around ten plainclothes police officers who apprehended them and placed them in detention.
Subsequent requests to allow them to regain their freedom pending further proceedings were refused.
According to RSF, the increase in legal proceedings against journalists has created a harmful climate forcing many media employees to censor themselves.
Sheikh Hasina’s regime was regularly criticized by press freedom organizations. From 2023 to 2024, Bangladesh had gone from 163e at 165e rank out of 180 countries in the ranking produced by RSF.