Dhaka, May 4 (UNI) The Bangladesh Awami League has called attention to the "deteriorating" media freedom standards in the country, and expressed solidarity with journalists who have faced harassment under the Mohd Yunus regime.
In a lengthy post on its X (formerly Twitter), the party wrote: “We express deepest sympathies and stand in solidarity with thousands of journalists who have been terrorised with vile threats of mob violence, indicted in outrageous murder charges, fallen victim to physical assaults and forcibly removed from their jobs over the past seven months but are still standing firm defying state sponsored persecution, in an open display of integrity to serve the nation in an objective manner.
“We protest and appeal for an end to the brazen justification of brutal persecution of journalists with indiscriminate tagging as ‘agents of Awami League’, another marker that exposes the fear of the regime supporters from a free press.”
Under the Yunus-led interim government, Bangladesh has witnessed a deterioration in press freedom, marked by censorship, intimidation, arrests, and violence against journalists. Despite initial promises of transparency and democratic reform, Yunus’ administration has drawn sharp criticism for suppressing dissent and controlling media narratives.
The Awami League continued: “In seven months, Bangladesh witnessed the highest number of journalists implicated in ridiculous murder charges, a glaring marker of weaponisation of the legal system to muzzle press freedom and install a climate of fear to terrorise independent voices and snatch away freedom of expression with a singular objective - to use the media for narrative building exercises.”
Many journalists are reported to have been detained under vague and often politically motivated charges, with the interim government utilising cyber laws to censor coverage, and giving tacit permission for mob attacks on the offices of major publications such as Business Standard BD, The Daily Star, and Prothom Alo, on charges of being pro-Western, or anti-Islam.
Calling attention to incidents of open vandalism and arson on media outlets by mobs, the party said that these incidents will remain a “blot on the state" over how it managed assault on the fourth pillar.
The Sheikh Hasina-led-party called the regime’s “tall claim to ensure an ideal work environment for journalists” as farcical, and accused it instead of having “unleashed an unprecedented wave of repression on the entire journalist community in Bangladesh.”
Calling upon their political rivals to stop “demonising’ and “vilifying” all investigative journalists as "AL agents", the party urged all groups to “stand against the regime’s brutal repression" on the press as "controlling the flow of information would only plunge the country into further chaos and weaken our quest for democracy.”
UNI ANV RN