Samad, others, remains imprisoned

BY ninan| IN Media Freedom | 09/12/2002

Reporters Sans Frontieres 

The police transferred Reporters Without Borders correspondent Saleem
Samad to Dhaka central prison on 4 December after a hearing at which his
lawyers and family were unable to gain access to him. Although he had
been interrogated for five days, the police handled his transfer to
prison in such a way that his lawyer was unable to obtain his signature
to a document granting power of attorney, which would have enabled the
lawyer to take additional legal initiatives for his release.

The next hearing is due to take place on 9 December. But certain sources
in Dhaka said the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department, now
in charge of the case, could resume interrogating Samad after the festivities 

 ending the month of Ramadan

Meanwhile, Samad¹s family has continued to receive threats from police
and members of the secret services. His younger brother Shamim, who had
filed a request for his release on bail, was himself threatened with
arrest and had to go into hiding for several days. His father, Abdus
Samad, 81, was obliged to get up in the middle of the night to answer
questions from police officers, who raided and searched the family home
at least three times. His sister-in-law has been receiving daily threats.
His wife and son have gone into hiding.

Journalists Zaiba Malik and Bruno Sorrentino of Britain¹s Channel 4
television and their translator Priscilla Raj were taken to Dhaka prison
on 2 December, while their driver was released the same day. Lawyers and
diplomats finally obtained access to them in the prison at 8 p.m. on 2
December. Previously, the police had refused to comply with a high court
of justice decision authorising access.  Representatives of the Italian
and British embassies said the two journalists and their translator had
not been beaten during interrogation. The prison governor received the
journalists in his office before they were taken to their cells.
The authorities have still not told the lawyers what exactly their
clients are being charged with. The court has simply said that the two
European journalists are accused of entering Bangladesh on "false
identities" and "conspiring against the country".

World-wide petition to free British journalists and Reporters Without
Borders correspondent, available on www.rsf.org

Original story on the arrests posted December 2, 2002

The arrests of Saleem Samad, Reporters Sans Frontiere’s correspondent in Bangladesh, and of a Channel 4 crew filming there, caps a year of growing media oppression.

The Hoot desk

Saleem Samad is someone we have never met. But he was one of the first individuals to rush to offer unstinted support to the idea of the Hoot. He wrote for this site, tirelessly promoted it and has helped us keep track in the last twenty months of the press freedom situation in his country.  You can read a longish paper by him by doing a site search here.

On November 29 the authorities in Bangladesh finally caught up with him after watching his home, harassing his family and cutting off his phone. Before that they tapped it to track down where he actually was.   His crime was the fact that he was assisting a Channel 4 crew who were filming a documentary in Bangladesh. They were arrested a few days earlier, on November 25.

Zaiba Malik and Bruno Sorrentino, of the British TV company Channel-4, along with their interpreter and driver were taken to the capital, Dhaka, for interrogation on suspicion of subversive activities.  They said they were in the country to prepare a programme about  the political and religious situation. But the government alleges that they were filming extremist groups and trying to portray Bangladesh as a

country where Islamic fanaticism is widespread. Reporters Sans Frontieres said last week that Directors of the Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and Communication (BCDJC) have been also under surveillance and threatened for helping the foreign journalists. 

A BBC correspondent in Dhaka says the arrests show the extreme sensitivities of the

government over allegations that the country is  embracing a more extreme form of Islam and that an al-Qaeda cell may be hiding in Bangladesh. Meanwhile Amnesty

 International, has urged the authorities to  ensure the detainees are not subjected to

torture or ill-treatment.

A few weeks earlier too there had been arrests which RSF took note of. It said in early November that  five  journalists of the privately-owned media were arrested in the course of a week, calling for the immediate release of one of them and for interior minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury to say why three others were arrested. It also asked the ministry of education to explain why its officials attacked and briefly detained two television reporters.

Moniruzzaman Monir, correspondent for the newspaper Dainik  Jugantor in the south town of Nalchity, was arrested on 23 October after the brother of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party leader Abu  Bakr Siddique filed a complaint alleging violence and extortion. The paper had printed an article by Monir about corruption by the group`s local leader.

 Three journalists in the southern town of Agailjhara -- Saiful Islam, of  Dainik Jugantor, Omar Ali Sani, of Dainik Ittefaq, Babu, of the local daily Dainik Gono Jagaron, -- were arrested on 30 October. They were officially accused of extortion but their arrest is thought to have been  linked with recent articles in the national press about illegal tree-felling. A senior police officer is said to have concocted false              evidence against them. They were freed on bail after journalists in the district capital, Barisal, pressed for their release.

Two television journalists, Mujib Masud and Mamoon Abdullah, who work for a new programme called "Roving Eye," broadcast by the  privately-owned station Channel-1, were attacked and detained by  officials at the education ministry building on 27 October. They were    rescued by members of the Dhaka Reporters Unity journalists`

organisation.

 Helal Uddin, correspondent of the daily paper Bhorer Kagoj in the North Western town of Sirajgang, was arrested on 21 October, but it  was not clear if the arrest was related to his work. He was picked up by the army, which is conducting a nationwide drive against crime and  political violence. He appeared in court on 28 October, but was refused bail. The next hearing of the case was set for 9 November.

At the end of August the Government closed down the lively private TV network Ekushey TV after the Supreme Court upheld the withdrawal of its licence.

Sources: RSF, and CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists).

Bangladesh annual report 2002 on the state of press freedom.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=1473

CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to
safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press
conditions in Bangladesh, visit www.cpj.org.