Bangladesh: Alarming crackdown on freedom of expression during coronavirus pandemic

ARTICLE 19 is alarmed by the Bangladesh Government’s crackdown on freedom of expression since the coronavirus pandemic began.

In particular, there has been an upsurge in attacks on media critical of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic in Bangladesh. The Government is increasingly using the deeply flawed Digital Security Act 2018 to harass, charge and arrest journalists. There have also been restrictions on dissent by the public: medical professionals have been told not to talk to the media; social media is being monitored; and government employees have been told not to like, share or comment on social media posts that are critical of the Bangladeshi government.

While the crackdown on freedom of expression has escalated during the pandemic, it also fits in a wider pattern of serious restrictions of critical voices in Bangladesh, where there are currently dozens of journalists, bloggers and activists in prison for simply expressing their opinion.

“It is shocking that during the coronavirus pandemic the government is using the Digital Security Act to prevent journalists from doing their job. This act criminalises freedom of expression and is characterised by vague definitions, broad provisions and sweeping powers,” said Faruq Faisel, Regional Director of ARTICLE 19.

“Both journalists and members of the public must be allowed to express criticism of the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic without fear of arrest.

“The government should immediately release all journalists and ensure that the rights to freedom of expression and access to information are respected in Bangladesh.”

Surge in journalist arrests during coronavirus pandemic

Since the coronavirus pandemic hit Bangladesh, there has been a surge in arrests of journalists, activists and others who criticised the Bangladesh Government for its lack of preparedness and poor response to the pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, 16 journalists have been arrested.

Many have been charged under the 2018 Digital Security Act. It is becoming increasingly difficult for journalists and bloggers to report about the crisis. As well as the arrests outlined below, in April, journalists’ movements were restricted to allegedly stop the spread of coronavirus.

On 6 May, 11 people – including a cartoonist, two journalists and a writer- were charged under the Digital Security Act with “spreading rumours and carrying out anti-government activities”. They were alleged to have posted about, “the coronavirus pandemic to negatively affect the nation’s image and to create confusion among the public through the social media and cause the law and order situation to deteriorate”. Four were remanded in prison; the others are bloggers and journalists who live outside Bangladesh.

The four men in detention are:

• Ahmed Kabir Kishore: he had his phones and computer confiscated after posting a series of critical satires about alleged corruption in the government’s coronavirus response.
• Mushtaq Ahmed: he published an article on the shortage of personal protective equipment for doctors.
• Tasneem Khalil, the editor of Netra News: he published a leaked UN memo estimating that two million Bangladeshis could die unless immediate steps were taken to curtail the virus.
• Didarul Bhuiyan, an activist with the Humanitarian assistance monitoring committee set up to monitor the government’s humanitarian activities in response to the pandemic. He published a report revealing that the most marginalised groups had received the least amount of government support.

In the same week, three journalists from Dainik Grameen Darpan in Narsingdi have also been arrested: news editor Ramzan Ali Pramanik, staff correspondent Shanta Banik, and online news portal Narsingdi Pratidin publisher and editor Shaon Khondoker Shahin. They were arrested after reporting about the death in custody of a man who broke the lockdown rules.

The Forum for Freedom of Expression, Bangladesh (FExB) reported that in April, “nearly two dozen journalists were attacked, intimidated, harassed, or arrested for reporting on pilferage, corruption, and lack of accountability in food aid meant for poor people who are facing extreme hardship during the lockdown”.

Coronavirus and freedom of expression

As well as arrests come as the government is cracking down on any critical voices on the government’s coronavirus response. Human Rights Watch reported that on 7 May, the government issued a circular prohibiting its employees from liking, sharing or commenting on any posts that are critical of the Bangladesh government.

The elite unit of the police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is monitoring social media and had by 10 April reportedly arrested 10 people for spreading false information about coronavirus.

Coronavirus and freedom of information

Public access to information during the coronavirus pandemic should be a priority to ensure people know how to protect themselves, what to do in case of emergencies and what regulations are in place. ARTICLE 19  in a new report, Ensuring the Public’s Right to Know in the COVID-19 Pandemic, highlighted governments’ obligations on access to information and public health under human rights law.

Reliable, accurate, and accessible information about the pandemic is essential to reducing the risk of transmission of the virus and to protecting the population against dangerous disinformation.

Amid growing criticism of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, medical personnel have been told not to speak to the media. The pandemic should absolutely not be used to silence whistleblowers, who reveal gaps in public health planning and implementation. They should be fully protected from retribution. Authorities can only use sanctions against those who use the pandemic to conduct illegal or unsafe practices and threaten or harm whistleblowers.

Governments should be transparent about the crisis and make all actions they are taking publicly available. Journalists must be able to criticise the authorities and scrutinise their response to the crisis. In addition, journalists play an important role in informing the public. They can identify new hotspots of the virus, provide information on protective measures, and expose falsehoods.

The 2018 Digital Security Act

The Digital Security Act was passed by the Parliament of Bangladesh to ensure digital security and to help prevent crimes committed on digital platforms. It replaced the widely criticised Information and Technology Act, which was frequently used to curtail freedom of expression. But the Digital Security Act is even more repressive than the legislation it replaced.

We have documented that this year alone, a total of 60 cases have been filed against more than 100 people, including 22 journalists. This is a significant increase compared to 2019 when 63 cases were filed under this law across the country and 2018 (34 cases).

ARTICLE 19 has warned that the act is deeply flawed given its lack of clarity and overly broad definitions. It grants a carte blanche to the Bangladesh Government to make rules around collection and preservation of data and suppress any critical voices. It lacks clear definitions, prohibits criticism of the government and criminalises freedom of expression. It further gives the Digital Security Agency the power to block or remove online information.

Bangladeshi journalists, and national and international human rights organisations have also criticised the act. Amnesty International called the Digital Security Act “an attack on freedom of expression that is even more repressive than the legislation it has replaced”. Human Rights Watch said it “utterly undermines any claim that the government of Bangladesh respects freedom of speech”.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union and the United States have all criticised the act for violating Bangladesh’s international human rights law.

International Human Rights Law

Bangladesh is obliged to ensure the right to freedom of expression, as enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The rights of freedom of expression and access to information may be restricted, but restrictions must be provided by law, pursue a legitimate aim, and be necessary and proportionate. Responding to a public health crisis is one of those legitimate aims but that does not give countries authority to waiving freedom of expression rights in total.

Recommendations

The Bangladesh Government must implement the following recommendations without delay:

• Amend the Digital Security Act 2018 and make sure it is in line with international human rights law and standards.
• Release all journalists arrested under the Digital Security Act and end the harassment of those reporting on coronavirus.
• Guarantee freedom of expression to media and social media platforms.

Article 19 posted the media statement on 19 May 2020

Condemn Criminalizing Freedom Of Expression

Media Statement

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NETWORK OF BANGLADESH

Media rights defenders of Bangladesh in strong words deplore the culture of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of free media.

[Dhaka, 13 October 2019]

We, the media rights defenders are worried about criminalizing freedom of expression, shrinking space for freedom of thought and impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.

We, are shocked that recently Abrar Fahad, a 21-year-old second-year student of a premier educational institution in the country, the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) became a victim of freedom of expression, intolerance to opinion and culture of impunity from punishment.

We, lost words to describe that he was brutally tortured to death by fellow students of BUET, for his Facebook post in the small hours of October 7, which was found offensive by the perpetrators, mostly members of the ruling student organization, the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

We, stated that the gruesome murder is yet another glaring example of an attack on free speech, media freedom, freedom of thought, human rights and the rule of law in Bangladesh.

We, understand that the police in their preliminary investigation found that Abrar was tortured to death after the suspects (BCL members) were annoyed for his Facebook post, which was deemed critical of recently concluded Bangladesh deals with India.

We, are appalled that the BCL leaders allegedly seized his mobile phone and laptop and checked his Facebook account and found the status posted at 5:32 pm on October 5 was offensive, which was deemed offensive.

We, are unequivocal to state that the perpetrators of gruesome murders of Facebook users, bloggers, writers and journalists have escaped justice were due to the culture of impunity.

We, have documented that scores of journalists, human rights defenders, writers, and bloggers who mostly apolitical were slammed for unlawful online expression under the draconian cybercrime laws which criminalize online dissent and critiquing public affairs in Bangladesh.

We, deplore that Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, later overshadowed with a new draconian law Digital Security Act 2018, has been widely criticized, because the law dares to curb freedom of expression and incite self-censorship.

We, recorded that soon after the notorious ICT law was enacted, many Facebook users were harassed by henchmen of the ruling political party and later arrested by police. The number of cases related to cybercrimes and filed under the Digital Security Act is on the rise.

We, reiterate our demand that the Government of Bangladesh must repeal the Digital Security Act, and squash all cases against people arbitrarily arrested under the act.

We, condemn the harassment of free speech practitioners under cyber-crime laws, which have created a culture of fear among citizens and self-censorship in mainstream media.

We, believe that in the absence of freedom of expression, the space for free speech is shrinking.

Endorsed and signed by members of Freedom of Expression Network of Bangladesh:

1.    Faruq Faisel, Article 19, Bangladesh

2.    Ahmed Swapan Mahmud, VOICE

3.    Saleem Samad, Reporters Without Borders (RSF)

4.   Khairuzzaman Kamal, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)

5.   Dr. Aireen Jaman, Pen International, Bangladesh

6.   Sayeed Ahmad, Centre for Social Activism

7.    Pulack Ghatak, Media Rights Journalist

8.    Mainul Islam Khan, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

9.   Ahamed Ullah, Bangladesh Manabadhikar Sangbadik Forum (BMSF)

For more information, please contact Ahmed Swapan: +88-01711-881919; Saleem Samad: +88-01711-530207; Faruq Faisel: +88-01730-710267, or send emails: saleemsamad@hotmail.com; ahmed.swapan@gmail.com; faruq@article19.org

Islamist threats and violence against press freedom

Bangladesh has slipped two notches in the World Press Freedom Index 2017 and has ranked 146th among 180 countries in terms of press freedom.

The Bangladeshi government does not take kindly to criticism of its Constitution or its state religion, Islam. Journalists and bloggers who resist censorship or self-censorship on these subjects risk life imprisonment, the death penalty, or murder by Islamist militants, who often issue online calls for the deaths of outspoken secularist bloggers and writers.

There is real pluralism, but media self-censorship is growing as a result of the endemic violence against journalists and media outlets, and the systematic impunity enjoyed by those responsible. In 2016, the government took a tougher line towards its critics and the media in general.

This was made clear by official statements expressing hostility towards the media, the blocking of dozens of websites, and the many lawsuits brought against journalists by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League.

Backlash against Bangladeshi bloggers

GITA SAHGAL

The bloggers of Shahbagh are facing a backlash – hunted by fundamentalists, denounced in mosques as atheists, arrested by the government. Those abroad are under threat. Meanwhile activists are still demanding justice and cyber movements are using their mobilising power to deal with disasters

This has been a troubling week for those who care about Bangladesh. The April 26 collapse of Rana Plaza, the garment factory building owned by a prominent member of the ruling party, the Awami League, shows the economic costs of the country’s “economic miracle.”  Bangladeshi cyber-activists threw themselves into raising funds and helping to buy medicines for hospitals running out of supplies. If lives are being saved, one told me, it is because ordinary people are helping to mobilise relief.

The movement for accountability for war crimes, consists of several generations of activists - from those who feel strongly about the war because they witnessed its atrocities, to the children of victims demanding justice, to younger generations born since the mass movements of the 1990s first demanded war crimes trials. Each generation has experienced a backlash against it from both fundamentalists and the state.

And this is true of the most recent of these movements. The mass populist uprising occupying Shahbag in Dhaka, calling for ‘maximum punishment’ (the death penalty) for war criminals, was sparked by the triumphant V sign made by a convicted man. He saw his life sentence as a victory.  At first, the political parties courted the Shahbag movement, with the government promising to rush through legislation that reflected its main demands – allowing the prosecution to challenge the sentence to make it harsher, and amending the law to enable  the Jamaat e Islami  to be put on trial as an organisation. The Jamaat-e-Islami,the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh, responded to the conviction and death sentence of the Deputy leader of the party, Delawar Hussein Sayeedi, with a country-wide campaign of violence, with particularly vicious attacks on religious minorities, including killing Hindus and destroying temples and homes. Christian Bangladeshis also reported attacks, but in some cases people were too afraid to make an official report.

Abroad, the conviction was referred to as ‘judicial murder’, to capitalise on the revulsion against the death penalty. But Western criticism of the Tribunal process failed to note also that peaceful opposition to religious fundamentalism was met by death threats, assault and murder. All  opposition to them was labelled ‘atheists’, and a label that seemed intended to provoke mass revulsion, promote extra-judicial killings as well as create a climate for  laws criminalising blasphemy.

Rajib, a young blogger, activist and professed atheist who was targeted online and then murdered,  has become an iconic figure in the movement. The fundamentalists have gone after a number of individual bloggers, beating people up and issuing death threats online or on mobiles. Labelling people as atheists, whether they are or not, puts them at risk of attack, and the bloggers have been targeted as atheists by both Muslim fundamentalists and the government.

In their defense, atheists, humanists and secularists  and declared April 25 an International Day to Defend Bangladesh's Bloggers. With some more protests planned on 4th May in deference to the tragedy currently gripping Bangladesh. The young bloggers need all the support they can get, for another fundamentalist group has arisen out of nowhere with a familiar list of fundamentalist demands. On April 7 this group, Hefazat e Islam, staged a mammonth “long march” of half a million people to protest against the mixed sex, peaceful, candlelit gatherings in Shahbagh. They made 13 demands,which contain many of familiar obsessions of fundamentalists. Apart from demanding a defamation law with the highest punishment (in other words making blasphemy punishable by death), Hefazat wants to declare Ahmadiyas to be non-Muslim, attacks practices such as candle lighting and putting up sculptures, opposes sexual mixing and “promotion of Islamophobia among the youth,” wants compulsory Islamic education at all levels and an end to “ungodly education, inheritance laws and unIslamic laws generally.” Christian and other NGOs are attacked for proselytizing and “an immediate and unconditional release of all detained Islamic scholars” is demanded.

Rather than defend the Shahbagh bloggers against fundamentalists, the government has found it expedient to crack down on them. When Hefazat e Islam prepared a list of 84 “atheist” bloggers, the government responded with its own list of those who had “hurt religious sentiments.” Four bloggers have been taken into custody and more arrests are threatened.  In order to humiliate and terrify dissenters, the police paraded the bloggers and had them photographed with their computers as if they found a cache of stolen goods. One blogger wrote, “it broke our hearts but it will not break our spirits.” Their accounts have been hacked, whether by non-state or state-backed people it is hard to say. Some bloggers have noticed that their arrested colleagues’ accounts remained active even after they were arrested, and have speculated that “evidence” may have been planted in them.

These demands are nothing new to Bangladesh, where Islamists have been trying to get a blasphemy law passed since the early nineties, when they went after the writer Taslima Nasrin. By labelling all bloggers as atheists, the fundamentalists hope turn the tide of public opinion against them. Throughout the war crimes trials, Jamaat’s strategy has been to say that they are being attacked as Muslims and as an opposition party, and to evade addressing the grave crimes  of which they are accused. Their lobbying campaign has been very persuasive for many MPs in Britain, who  demanded an invitation to monitor the Tribunal while also instructing the government of Bangladesh that they should not have ‘a retributive process’ but adopt a reconciliation model.

That is why it was heartening to see support for the principle of accountability from MPs from a range of parties. Two British MEPs, Charles Taylor, Conservative, and Jean Lambert of the Green Party, addressed a rally on war crimes in London on 28th April, which passed off peacefully. Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Attorney General, who has recently travelled in Bangladesh, acknowledged the strong democratic mandate for the trials and the immense strength of feeling on the issue. She said that if people were assured that life actually meant life, rather than a sentence that could be reversed by a change in government, the issue of the death penalty may not have arisen at all.

Writing in 2002 about the campaign by Jamaat e Islami and other fundamentalist organisations to make blasphemy a criminal offence, Bangladeshi Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain described a three-pronged strategy, “invoking criminal laws to curtail speech by targeted individuals and groups, fomenting a climate of intolerance against them, and mobilising public sentiment for the enactment of draconian new laws – as key tools in their project of silencing expressions of difference, and asserting their vision of a monolithic Islam.” All these elements are present in today’s battles.

The conflict between Bangladeshi secularists and fundamentalists has spread to London’s East End where, on Feb. 8th, at Altab Ali Park, young demonstrators supporting Shahbagh clashed with men from the Jamaat-dominated East London mosque.  For older anti-racists, the scenes were remniscent of decades old battles where the police simply protected the aggressors ‘freedom of speech’ and right to threaten and intimidate. Fundamentalist demonstrations from the Jamaat associated East London Mosque have been taking place regularly after Friday prayers, according to activists. Secular Bangladeshis of all religious backgrounds and none were finally able to rally and march outwards from Altab Ali park through Brick Lane and the surrounding streets. It was a suitable demonstration that the secular activists who have been receiving regular death threats have not been cowed into retreat.

Thousands of leaflets have been distributed from the East London Mosque and across the world labelling prominent bloggers as atheists. Sermons have been read attacking atheists, Hindus and suggestive statements made regarding sexual assault. In Bangladesh, fundamentalists  paraded a banner which said, ‘we demand the death penalty for atheist bloggers because they use obscene language to criticise Allah, Mohammed and the Quran.’  Statements such as these, along with murderous attacks on atheist and free thinking bloggers, need to be considered alongside the leaflets identifying named individuals as atheists and accusing them of insulting religion, to see whether they amount to incitement to  murder. Fundamentalists consider it an obligation for believers to kill apostates; a recent Moroccan fatwa  makes this very clear, as does the experience of an atheist from Bangladesh, applying for asylum in Canada.

It is clear that free-thinking activists will be actively targeted first by fundamentalists, and then by the state, so can expect no protection anywhere.

As Asif Mohiuddin, one of the Bangladeshi bloggers said just before his arrest, “To drag religion into politics and playing with it like a football is the real offence towards religion.”  Authorities in both London and Dhaka are playing with fire if they think protecting hate campaigns is the same as defending freedom of religion.

First appeared in the openDemocracy.net,  29 April 2013

Gita Sahgal, is a film maker and writer, formerly worked with the Amnesty International. She is founder of the Centre for Secular Space, which opposes fundamentalism, amplifies secular voices and promotes universality in human rights.

Islamist agitation fuels unrest in Bangladesh

Photo: Makiko Segawa - Posters demanding trial of crime against humanity 

JOHN CHALMERS, Reuters, Dhaka

One night in February, Rajib Haider was set upon near his Dhaka home by five knife-wielding youths. His face was so lacerated that a relative who found the body wasn't sure it was him until he called Haider's cellphone and heard it ring inside a pocket.

Haider was a blogger, one of hundreds in Bangladesh demanding the death penalty for Islamist leaders accused of wartime atrocities, whose grisly murder swelled the crowds at student-led rallies many hailed as a "Bangladesh Spring".

But now, a radical pro-Islam movement has emerged to counter the students it sneers at as "atheist bloggers".

Known as Hefajat-e-Islam, it has given the government until May 5 to introduce a new blasphemy law, reinstate pledges to Allah in the constitution, ban women from mixing freely with men and make Islamic education mandatory - an agenda critics say would amount to the 'Talibanisation' of Bangladesh.

The clash of ideologies could plunge Bangladesh into a cycle of violence as the two main political parties, locked in decades of mutual distrust, exploit the tension between secularists and Islamists ahead of elections that are due by next January.

"This is a confrontation between secular and conservative orthodox interpretations of religion," said Muhammad Zamir, a former career diplomat and now a newspaper columnist.

Blaming the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for encouraging Hefajat to square off against the students, he said "they now realise they have opened Pandora's box".

Already dozens of people have been killed in clashes this year, mostly between Islamist party activists and security forces, and a series of general strikes called by opposition parties is starting to bite into the Muslim-majority country's fragile economy.

BANGLADESH'S TAHRIR SQUARE

What is now Bangladesh became part of Pakistan at the end of British colonial rule of India in 1947. The country, then known as East Pakistan, won independence with India's help in December 1971 following a nine-month war against the rest of Pakistan.

The trigger for this year's spasm of unrest came in February when a tribunal set up by the government to investigate abuses during the war sentenced a leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party to life in prison, sparing him execution.

Jamaat, an Islamist ally of the BNP that opposed independence from Pakistan, denies accusations that some of its leaders committed murder, rape and torture during the conflict.

Wrangling over a war that ended 42 years ago might puzzle outsiders, but it underlines the unresolved rift within this South Asian country of 160 million between secular nationalism and a belief that Islam is the defining core of the state.

The tribunal's decision not to sentence Abdul Quader Mollah to death sparked public outrage that was fuelled by secular activists who used blogs and social media websites to call for mass protests.

Tens of thousands poured into the Shahbag area of central Dhaka, staging rallies and vigils. The rise of their movement was soon referred to as a "Tahrir Square" moment, after the scene of protests in Cairo that led to the overthrow of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Imran H. Sarker, who gave up his full-time job as a physician to lead the movement, says that some 60,000 Internet activists have now united under the "Shahbag" banner against war crimes and Islamic fundamentalism.

His group now also wants the government to ban Jamaat, whose student wing ordered the slaying of blogger Haider, according to the confessions of five students who say they carried it out.

"They don't even love this country," Sarker, a softly spoken 29-year-old, told Reuters at a medical university in Dhaka, railing against the Islamist party. "When we play cricket against Pakistan ... they take along a Pakistani flag."

He denied charges that "Shahbag" enjoys backing from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's party, the centre-left Awami League, which critics say is exploiting the war tribunal to win votes.

However, his movement's decision to target Jamaat convinced many that Sarker is a pawn of the government. It shifted the narrative of the public quarrelling from war crimes to religion, and it spurred a backlash from Islamist forces.

Blood-letting erupted across the country at the end of February when the war crimes tribunal condemned a top leader of the Jamaat party to hang.

The army was deployed after furious Jamaat activists attacked police with crude bombs, swords and sticks, burnt down houses of Awami League leaders and Hindus, and raided Hindu temples. At least 30 people were killed on the day of the ruling alone, and the toll ratcheted up over the next few days.

"WE ARE NOT TALIBAN"

The emergence of Hefajat-e-Islam since then was the Islamist answer to "Shahbag", whose momentum appears to have fizzled out. Over 100,000 people massed in central Dhaka on April 6 to rally behind the new movement, whose name means 'protector of Islam'.

Among the speakers at that rally was Habibur Rahman, head of a madrasa - or religious school - who told local media after a trip to Afghanistan in 1998 that he had met former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and praised "the total victory of Taliban and establishment of an Islamic state in Afghanistan".

One of Hefajat-e-Islam's leaders is Mufti Fayez Ullah, who spoke to Reuters from a mosque that is set among the narrow bustling streets of old Dhaka and hums with the sound of boys reciting from the Koran, Islam's holy book.

"We have been termed as Taliban, but this is absolutely false, baseless and nothing but propaganda against us," he said. "But the Shahbag people are against Islam. They humiliate men with beards and caps. It cannot be tolerated."

He said Hefajat-e-Islam's supporters would bring Dhaka to a standstill on May 5 if the government did not meet a list of 13 demands, which include the call for a new law against blasphemy.

Several more verdicts are likely to be handed down by the war crimes tribunal in coming months, keeping alive tensions that analysts say the government and its arch-foes - the BNP and Jamaat - will try to use to their advantage as elections loom.

For now, the bloggers vs. Islam feud has diverted attention from a stand-off between Prime Minister Hasina and BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia over whether to install a caretaker authority to ensure a free and fair election.

Both heirs to political dynasties, Hasina and Khaleda have rotated as prime minister since 1991 amid unending enmity.

Diplomats in Dhaka say the interim administration row will come to a head around September.

If that impasse is not broken, the BNP may boycott the poll, unleashing fresh unrest - or there could be a repeat of 2007, when the army stepped in and installed a provisional government to crack down on political thuggery and violence.

Additional reporting by Ruma Paul and Serajul Quadir; Editing by Nick Macfie

First syndicated by Reuters, April 16, 2013

Bloggers In Bangladesh Worry They Could Be Next Targets Of Government Crackdown

EMRAN HOSSAIN

WASHINGTON -- As four bloggers in Bangladesh have been arrested in recent days, others in the country's blogging community worry that they could be next and accuse politicians of trying to suppress people's freedom to organize and speak out in order to preserve their own political power.

Last week, police detained four bloggers in the capital city of Dhaka who have been critical of the government's pro-Islamist stance. Home Minister M.K. Alamgir warned that the government has a list of seven more "atheist bloggers" who will soon be targeted.

Alamgir has not revealed who the seven bloggers are on his allegedly "atheist" list, although several groups of Muslim fundamentalists have named names. The latter lists are currently available on social media, with one identifying 84 bloggers.

The Huffington Post reached out to seven prominent Bangladeshi bloggers, all on the Islamists' lists. The three who replied said they were concerned that they could be targeted.

The bloggers described an ongoing fight between Islamist forces that want to drive the country in a religiously fundamentalist direction and the online journalists giving a voice to those Bangladeshi who want a more open, tolerant society.

"Bloggers have become the voice of people in recent days in Bangladesh," said one of the bloggers, who requested anonymity out of fear for his safety and who is currently staying in an undisclosed location. "Most of the bloggers don't belong to any political party, they boldly criticize any oppression and injustice. So, this freedom became a headache for mainstream politicians, and now they have started to control freedom of speech in the internet, especially in blog and social media."

Another blogger, Baki Billah, told The Huffington Post that in the last few days, sources at various government offices have warned him that he may be arrested.

At this point, Billah said he knows that anything could happen, considering that one of those already arrested is Russell Parvez, a prominent voice among Bangladeshi bloggers.

"How ridiculous it is to arrest one of the most promising writers in the country apparently for no reason," said Billah. He also contended that Parvez "is being tortured in remand."

Parvez, who received his master's degree in physics from the University of Connecticut, is well-known for his analytical pieces on religion, politics, fundamentalism and science. He spent more than five years building his reputation, and newcomers consider Parvez a first-generation blogger who has paved the way for others.

The question that continues to nag at the bloggers is why the center-left coalition government, which has been in power since 2009, suddenly decided to focus on the bloggers and arrest four of its critics.

Billah believes that the whole situation is being manipulated by Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party that is currently out of power but still wields significant influence, for its own political purposes. Jamaat opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and perpetrated war crimes listed by the Guinness Book of Records as among the five deadliest 20th-century killings.

Right now, the International Crimes Tribunal, which was set up by the current government to deal with war crimes, is trying nine men -- including seven members of Jamaat-e-Islami. Billah charged that Jamaat is trying to foil those trials by causing public disorder over the issue of religion.

Many supporters of the bloggers argue that the country's two major political parties -- the Awami League, which controls the coalition government, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) -- are going along with Jamaat-e-Islami's agenda out of fear of having their own religious commitments questioned.

The bloggers' arrests came in the wake of threats from another, little-known Islamist party called Hefazat-e Islam that threatened to march toward Dhaka on April 6 to press for "punishing all atheist bloggers." The blogging community had ignited the ire of this group by launching a mass protest advocating the separation of politics and religion, as well as justice for war crimes victims. The protest began on Feb. 5, the day a third Jamaat leader was sentenced to a life term by the International Crimes Tribunal. Two others had already been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

The protest, established in one of Dhaka's busiest intersections, Shahbagh, has continued non-stop and is now being called the "Shahbagh movement."

Public awareness of the bloggers has also grown, particularly since the assassination of Rajib Haider, a blogger who was hacked to death in front of his residence on Feb. 15. Five young men confessed to murdering Haider, saying they had been instructed by a leader of Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat.

The assassination was followed by an anonymous smear campaign against bloggers like Haider, sometimes with doctored websites containing posts that defame Islam.

But the bloggers are clear on whom they blame the deteriorating situation.

"Both Awami League and BNP rehabilitated Jamaat in post-Independence Bangladesh for their political gains. These parties allowed Jamaat to abuse religion only to keep their pathway to power cleared," said Billah.

In the 42 years of Bangladesh's existence, the Shahbagh movement is the first time people have to come together in significant numbers to demand a ban on Jamaat for perpetrating war crimes in the 1971 war, and to call for the separation of religion from politics in order to build a secular society.

"Awami League found it difficult to deal with a bunch of these free-thinkers showing urban middle-class youth the ground to organize," Billah told HuffPost via email.

The Awami League, which promised in the last election that the war criminals from 1971 would be put on trial this time, tried to penetrate and control the Shahbagh movement but failed, according to Parvez Alam, another blogger accused of being an "atheist" by some fundamentalist groups.

Alam has been involved in Shahbagh as the coordinator of the "Jatiyo sarthe blogger online activist forum," a platform that helped organize several anti-government protests in the last few years. One of the arrested bloggers, Asif Mohiuddin, was also a member of this forum until he was stabbed by fundamentalists in January.

"The government is well aware of the revolutionary character of any mass gathering. The mainstream political parties are afraid to face such a challenge. Shahbagh has overturned the dominance of the ruling Awami League and major opposition BNP and the rule of political dynasties as well," said Alam.

The bloggers have vowed not to give in to the pressure, saying that now is the time to finish the promise of the 1971 revolution in which 3 million individuals died to break away from Pakistan and its religion-based government. And they are joined by thousands of Shahbagh protesters from all walks of life, especially young people.

"To me, this is a fight between old and new. If old is defeated, the world will see a new Bangladesh," said Billah.

First published in the Huffington Post, April 9, 2013

Emran Hossain is a journalist with BDNews24.com in Bangladesh. He is a 2013 Daniel Pearl fellow at The Huffington Post as part of a program with the Alfred Friendly Press Partners. He c ould reached at emran.hossain@huffingtonpost.com

In Bangladesh, climate worsens for journalists

SUMIT GALHOTRA

This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of Islamists took to the streets in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, demanding death for bloggers whose work they see as blasphemous. The demonstrations highlight the deteriorating climate for journalists, both those whose work is the target of the protests and those who have tried to cover the events. Several journalists were assaulted while covering the day-long demonstrations, including reporter Nadia Sharmin of the private broadcaster Ekushey Television. She was assaulted by a group of 50 to 60 Islamists who threw her to the ground, beat her, and told her that reporting was an unfit profession for a woman, news reports said.

These most recent demonstrations led by the Islamist political party, Hefajat-e-Islam, are in response to online writers and activists who have been instrumental in amplifying support for the Shahbagh movement, which arose in early February when a senior Islamist was sentenced to life imprisonment by a war crimes tribunal in connection with mass killings dating back to the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan. Many Bangladeshis saw the sentence as problematic given that criminals in the country--consistently rated one of the most corrupt nations in the world --are often set free for political gain when a new party comes to power. The Shahbagh movement calls for the death penalty against all those standing trial for war crimes. The movement also became a rallying call against growing Islamic fundamentalism in a country that is 90 percent Muslim.

Threats to online journalists who have written about growing fundamentalism surfaced in January when the popular blogger Asif Mohiuddin, who describes himself as an atheist, was stabbed by religious extremists. Events took a deadly turn on February 15 when Ahmed Rajib Haider, another well-known blogger, was hacked to death outside his home by assailants wielding machetes, a case that CPJ is still investigating.

Islamists also took to the streets in response to the Shahbagh movement, leading to violent flare-ups across the country. Several journalists were injured while covering protests. A well-known journalist couple--Nayeemul Islam Khan and Nasima Khan Monti--had a series of bombs hurled at their car while driving home from a social event last month. Khan has been a frequent commentator on television talk shows, and his opinions might have offended one of the contending parties, news reports said. The day after the attack on the journalists' car, unidentified assailants threw three homemade explosives at the Chittagong Press Club, where local journalists had gathered to be briefed on a planned rally by members of the Shahbagh movement.

In a disturbing development, four bloggers were arrested last week on charges of insulting Islam through their Internet writings. The bloggers, who have written about Islamist fundamentalism in a critical way, face up to 10 years in jail under existing cyber laws. The arrests come amid a wider crackdown on the Internet in which the government has blocked about a dozen websites and blogs since last week. Authorities have also set up a panel, which included intelligence chiefs, to investigate material posted on social media sites that is perceived to be blasphemous. Last week, the country's telecommunications regulator ordered two sites to remove hundreds of posts by seven bloggers whose writings it said offended Muslims, reports said.

Many bloggers have stopped writing, and some have gone into hiding fearing for their life, according to a Dhaka-based blogger who did not want his name publicized due to security concerns. At least eight sites announced a blackout on the blogosphere in protest of the recent arrests and wider crackdown. One such site posted a notice that read: "Bangla Blogosphere begins blackout in protest against harassing and cracking down on bloggers."

With violence continuing and the government saying that more arrests are to come, the situation is bleak for Bangladeshi bloggers.

First published in CPJ Blog, Press Freedom News and Views, April 8, 2013

Sumit Galhotra is CPJ’s first Steiger Fellow. He has worked for CNN International, Amnesty International USA, and Human Rights Watch, and has reported from London, India, and Israel and the Occupied Territories. He specializes in human rights and South Asia