05 April 2013

IFJ Calls for Release of Four Arrested Bloggers in Bangladesh

Media Release: Bangladesh

April 5, 2013

According to information received from the IFJ’s

partners under the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN), Subrata Adhikari

Shuvo, Russel Parvez and Mashiur Rahman Biplob, were arrested late on April 1

and remanded to seven days for interrogation the following day. On April 3,

Asif Mohiuddin was arrested and remanded to three days in police custody the

following day.

Political tensions have been running high in

Bangladesh for two months, since spontaneous youth protests erupted in the

capital city of Dhaka after a tribunal constituted to try alleged war criminals

from the country’s 1971 war of liberation, turned in a guilty verdict against

an accused member of the Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI), but was then

seen to have delivered too lenient a sentence.

The protesters occupied a prominent square in Dhaka

city where they continue to demonstrate, even as the movement has spread to

other parts of the country and escalated its demands to a possible ban on the JEI.

The Islamist party has retaliated by accusing the

demonstrators of insulting the majority faith of Bangladesh in their slogans

and their frequent blog-posts. Some of the blogspot content alleged to have

been posted by the demonstrators is believed to have been doctored by the

political party, to strengthen its case. Counter demonstrations by the JEI have

been fired upon by the police, resulting in a number of deaths.

The arrest of the four bloggers is seen as an effort

by the ruling Awami League party to neutralise the counter-mobilisation by the

Islamist party.

Bangladesh’s Home Minister has since said that the

government has a list of another seven “atheist bloggers” who could soon be

arrested.

Journalists in Bangladesh are disturbed by these

developments and by the government’s stated intent to monitor blog content and

initiate criminal action against alleged offenders.

The IFJ joins journalists and other free speech

advocates in Bangladesh in calling on the authorities to release the four

youths in custody and work towards an understanding with journalists and civil

society groups on the broad parameters of the right to free speech, which is

guaranteed by the constitution of Bangladesh.

For

further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919

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