Tag: Shahidul Alam

Bangladeshi Jail Officials Stall Shahidul Alam’s Release Citing ‘Address’ Discrepancy

“A jail official came out and told us that there was a discrepancy in the address in jail custody papers and the judgment noted by jail authorities,” Alam’s lawyer Sara Hossain said.

Dhaka: Lawyers for jailed Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam on Tuesday, November 20, said jailers were blocking his release on bail by a high court order citing “the petty issue of discrepancy in jail address”.

The bail bond and release order were furnished to jail authorities at 11:30 am on Tuesday “but they are still not releasing Dr Alam,” said his lawyer Sara Hossain from outside the prison.

She called on the media to publicise the unrelenting efforts by the Bangladesh government to block Alam’s freedom and said a “contempt notice” had been issued.

Also read: Why the Bangladesh Government Is Scared of Shahidul Alam

“A jail official came out and told us that there was a discrepancy in the address in jail custody papers and the judgment noted by jail authorities,” Hossain said. Her colleagues have left for the chief metropolitan magistrate’s court to get it corrected, she added. But this is an “immaterial issue”.

Alam has been in custody for over 100 days since August and has been accused of various charges, including violations of the country’s draconian IT act and bringing the country “into disrepute” by giving interviews to international media sharply critical of the Awami League government.

Shahidul Alam Granted Bail After 102 Days in Custody, Countless Petitions

A vocal critic of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh, the 63-year-old photojournalist had been arrested on August 5.

New Delhi: A court in Bangladesh has granted bail to 63-year-old Shahidul Alam, the award-winning photojournalist, teacher and activist  who was arrested on suspicion of spreading “propaganda and false information” during widespread student protests, in a case widely seen as a test for freedom of speech ahead of a general election next month.

“The high court granted his permanent bail considering his age and the time he spent behind bars,” the the Daily Star reported.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, “A bench of Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal and Justice Bhishmadev Chakrabortty passed the order on Thursday. Deputy attorney general Bashir Ullah appeared for the state while Sara Hossain and Jyotirmoy Barua appeared for Shahidul Alam during the court session.”

There is no legal bar for Shahidul to get released from jail following the high court verdict, Barua told the Daily Star.

Also read: ‘The Tide Will Turn’: Read Arundhati Roy’s Letter to Jailed Bangladeshi Photographer Shahidul Alam

“We’re delighted that ultimately the court has granted him bail,” Hossain said, adding she expected her client to be out soon.

The government’s top lawyer said it would appeal the high court decision. “We will soon appeal to the Supreme Court against this bail decision,” attorney general Mahbubey Alam said, adding Shahidul Alam had lowered the government’s image through his propaganda.

Also read: Why the Bangladesh Government Is Scared of Shahidul Alam

Alam was picked up from his home by plainclothes policemen without a warrant, hours after conducting two Facebook Live sessions and giving an interview to television channel Al Jazeera, in which he accused the government of extrajudicial killings and corruption – accusations the government dismissed.

(With inputs from Reuters)

‘The Tide Will Turn’: Read Arundhati Roy’s Letter to Bangladeshi Photographer Shahidul Alam

“If we can do this to Shahidul Alam, think of what we can do to the rest of you – all you nameless, faceless, ordinary people. Watch. And be afraid.”

Each year, PEN International highlights the cases of five persecuted writers – be they imprisoned, facing prosecution or otherwise at risk – that are emblematic of the type of threats and attacks faced by writers and journalists around the world.

This year, PEN International is campaigning for Dawit Isaak imprisoned in Eritrea, Miroslava Breach Velducea killed in Mexico, Oleg Sentsov imprisoned in Russia, Shahidul Alam detained in Bangladesh and Wael Abbas imprisoned in Egypt.

Writers David Lagercrantz, Jennifer Clement, Tom Stoppard, Salil Tripathi and Khaled Hosseini are taking part in this year’s campaign.

As part of the campaign, Arundhati Roy has written an open letter to Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam, who has been detained since August 5, 2018. The letter has been reproduced in full below.

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To,
Shahidul Alam
Champakali 2/5
Dhaka Central Jail
Keraniganj,
Dhaka
Bangladesh
November 15th 2018
PEN International’s Day of the Imprisoned Writer

Dear Shahidul,

It’s been more than a hundred days now since they took you away. Times aren’t easy in your country or in mine, so when we first heard that unknown men had abducted you from your home, of course we feared the worst. Were you going to be “encountered” (our word in India for extra-judicial murder by security forces) or killed by “non-state actors”? Would your body be found in an alley, or floating in some shallow pond on the outskirts of Dhaka? When your arrest was announced and you surfaced alive in a police station, our first reaction was one of sheer joy.

Am I really writing to you? Perhaps not. If I were, I wouldn’t need to say very much beyond, “Dearest Shahidul, no matter how lonely your prison cell, know that we have our eyes on you. We are looking out for you.”

If I were really writing to you I wouldn’t need to tell you how your work, your photographs and your words, has, over decades, inscribed a vivid map of humankind in our part of the world—its pain, its joy, its violence, its sorrow and desolation, its stupidity, its cruelty, its sheer, crazy complicatedness—onto our consciousness. Your work is lit up, made luminous, as much by love as it is by a probing, questioning anger born of witnessing at first hand the things that you have witnessed. Those who have imprisoned you have not remotely understood what it is that you do. We can only hope, for their sake, that someday they will.

Also Read: Why the Bangladesh Government Is Scared of Shahidul Alam

Your arrest is meant to be a warning to your fellow citizens: “If we can do this to Shahidul Alam, think of what we can do to the rest of you—all you nameless, faceless, ordinary people. Watch. And be afraid.”

The formal charge against you is that you have criticized your country in your (alleged) Facebook posts. You have been arrested under the Section 57 of Bangladesh’s infamous Information and Communications Technology Act (ICT) which authorizes “the prosecution of any person who publishes, in electronic form, material that is fake and obscene; defamatory; tends to deprave and corrupt its audience; causes or may cause deterioration in law and order; prejudices the image of the state or a person; or causes or may cause hurt to religious belief.”

What sort of law is this, this absurd, indiscriminate, catch-all, fishing trawler type of law? What place does it have in a country that calls itself a democracy? Who has the right to decide what the correct “image of the state” is, and should be? Is there only one legally approved and acceptable image of Bangladesh? Section 57 potentially criminalizes all forms of speech except blatant sycophancy. It’s an attack, not on intellectuals, but on intelligence itself. We hear that over the last five years more than 1200 journalists in Bangladesh have been charged under it, and that 400 trials are already underway.

Shahidul Alam. Credit: Shahidul Alam/Facebook

In India too, this sort of attack on our intelligence is becoming normalized. Our equivalent of Bangladesh’s ICT Act is the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act under which hundreds of people including students, activists, lawyers and academics are being arrested in wave after wave. The cases against them, like the one against you, are flimsy and ludicrous. Even the police know that they are likely to be acquitted by higher courts. But the hope is that by then, their spirits will have been broken by years in prison. The process is the punishment.

This is what we are up against, these neat definitions of the perfect nation, the perfect man, the perfect citizen, the perfect Hindu, the perfect Muslim.

So, as I write this letter to you, dear Shahidul, I am tempted to add, dear Sudha, dear Saibaba, dear Surendra, dear Shoma, dear Mahesh, dear Sudhir, dear Rona, dear Arun, dear Vernon, and also, dear Tariq, dear Aijaz, dear Aamir, dear Kopa, dear Kamla, dear Madavi, dear Maase, dear Raju, dear hundreds and hundreds of others.

How is it possible for people to defend themselves against laws like these? It’s like having to prove one’s innocence before a panel of certified paranoics. Every argument only serves to magnify their paranoia and heighten their delusions.

As both our countries hurtle towards general elections, we know that we can expect more arrests, more lynching, more killing, more bloggers hacked to death, more orchestrated ethnic, religious and caste conflagrations— more false-flag “terrorist” strikes, more assassinations of journalists and writers. Elections, we know, means fire in the ducts.

Your Prime Minister, who claims to be a secular democrat, has announced that she will build 500 mosques with the billion dollars the Government of Saudi Arabia has donated to Bangladesh. These mosques are supposedly meant to disseminate the “correct” kind of Islam.

Also Read: The Court Should Not Have to Bow Before the Unreasonableness of the UAPA

Here in India, our rulers have dropped all pretense of the secularism and socialism that are enshrined in our constitution. In order to distract attention from the catastrophic failures of governance and deepening popular resentment, as institution after institution—our courts, universities, banks, intelligence agencies—is pushed into crisis, the ruling power, (not the Government, but its holding company, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,) is alternately cajoling and threatening the Supreme Court to pass an order clearing the decks for the construction of a giant Hindu temple on the site where the Babri Masjid once stood before it was demolished by a rampaging mob. It’s amazing how politicians’ piety peaks and troughs with election cycles.

This is what we are up against, these neat definitions of the perfect nation, the perfect man, the perfect citizen, the perfect Hindu, the perfect Muslim. The postscript to this is the perfect majority and the satanic minority. The people of Europe and the Soviet Union have lived through the devastation that these sorts of ideas caused. They have suffered the matchless terror of neatness. Only recently Europe marked the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht—the event that marked the beginning of the Holocaust. There too it all began quite slowly. There too it began with elections. And there too the old murmurs have started up again.

Here we’re going to witness our own scorched-earth elections in the coming days. They will use their fishing-trawler laws, they will jump at shadows to decimate the opposition.

Fortunately, we are an irredeemably untidy people. And hopefully we will stand up to them in our diverse and untidy ways.

Dear Shahidul, I believe the tide will turn. It will. It must. This foolish, shortsighted cruelty will give way to something kinder and more visionary. This particular malaise, this bout of ill-health that has engulfed our planet will pass.

I hope to see you in Dhaka very soon.

With love
Arundhati

On Day 100, 34 Eminent South Asians Write to Bangladesh PM for Shahidul Alam’s Release

“His arrest and continued detention appear to be manifestation of an intolerant political atmosphere, an attempt to threaten and silence the voice of Bangladeshi citizens.”

New Delhi: Exactly one hundred days ago on August 5, internationally recognised and award-winning photojournalist, teacher and activist Shahidul Alam was picked up from his home in Dhaka by plainclothes policemen without a warrant, just hours after he went live on Facebook to describe the student protests in the city and how he was attacked by members of the ruling party while covering a demonstration.

A vocal critic of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh, Alam has been in custody since despite many pleas from across the world to have him released. In the latest petition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, 34 eminent South Asians have written to her, demanding that he be released.

Also read: Why the Bangladesh Government Is Scared of Shahidul Alam

The signatories, who include Arundhati Roy, Aparna Sen, Romila Thapar, Amitav Ghosh, Ramachandra Guha, Vrinda Grover, Vikram Seth and Raghu Rai, said: “It is clear to us that the case of Shahidul Alam is being used as a means to suppress criticism by others in civil society. His arrest and continued detention appear to be manifestation of an intolerant political atmosphere, an attempt to threaten and silence the voice of Bangladeshi citizens.”

The letter notes: “Shahidul Alam is a Bangladeshi citizen, but the rest of us in South Asia are also proud to call him our own, for the values of truth, justice and social equality he promotes.”

Accused of violating section 57 of Bangladesh’s Information and Communication Technology Act and ‘hurting the image of the nation’, Alam has been denied bail five times. Just a week after being arrested, The Wire carried a note written by his partner Rahnuma Ahmed which spoke of how Alam, when produced before the magistrate, told of how he had been tortured in custody.

Also read: Petition Demanding Release of Dr. Shahidul Alam Signed by Global Group of Intellectuals

“He was unable to walk by himself when he appeared in court in August, and he told friends that he had been beaten up by the authorities,” Amnesty had reported.

“As believers in the rule of law, we are shocked to learn that government lawyers continue to oppose Shahidul Alam’s release on bail using various stratagems and delays intended to deprive him of his fundamental rights to liberty and due process,” the letter reads. 

§

The full text of the letter has been reproduced below:

Subject: Appeal for release of Shahidul Alam on 100th day in custody

Your Excellency:

As well-wishers of Bangladesh and supporters of its 166 million citizens’ struggle for dignity, social justice and prosperity, we are distressed by the continued imprisonment of photographer and cultural activist Shahidul Alam.

Since the founding of the nation in 1971, the people of Bangladesh have led by example, fighting poverty, ending social injustices and being standard-bearers of participatory development. This advance has been made possible by the democratic spirit of the people, who have challenged military rulers and autocrats alike. As well-wishers of Bangladesh, we fear that these gains are in danger due to the rising political intolerance and denial of fundamental freedoms.

Shahidul Alam is a Bangladeshi citizen, but the rest of us in South Asia are also proud to call him our own, for the values of truth, justice and social equality he promotes. His work and activism are respected all over our region and beyond, with innumerable friends who admire his concern for the voiceless and marginalised. One example is his latest work highlighting the tragedy of the Rohingya people, who have been given refuge in Bangladesh by your Government.

Since Shahidul Alam was forcefully taken from his home on the 5th of August, he was remanded first in Detective Branch custody for seven days and, then held at Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj. He is accused of ‘hurting the image of the nation’ while reporting on protests by young students demanding road safety.

It is clear to us that the case of Shahidul Alam is being used as a means to suppress criticism by others in civil society. His arrest and continued detention appear to be manifestation of an intolerant political atmosphere, an attempt to threaten and silence the voice of Bangladeshi citizens. With the country preparing for general elections, this is a time when there should be more space for debate and discussion, not less.

As believers in the rule of law, we are shocked to learn that government lawyers continue to oppose Shahidul Alam’s release on bail using various stratagems and delays intended to deprive him of his fundamental rights to liberty and due process. Across South Asia, politicians and citizens have fought for the right to speak, and to write, and it is astonishing to us that a government today, especially one which seeks to harness technology for progress, should choose to use a law to proscribe online speech to jail a citizen.

Prime Minister, we the undersigned urge you to ensure the release of Shahidul Alam on this, the 100th  day of his detention. We look forward to Bangladesh retaining its place as an exemplar of participatory democracy in South Asia.

Sincerely,

1.   Akram Khan, London

2.   Amar Kanwar, New Delhi

3.   Amitav Ghosh, Goa

4.   Anish Kapoor, London

5.   Aparna Sen, Kolkata

6.   Arundhati Roy, New Delhi

7.   Ashok Vajpeyi, New Delhi

8.   Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Kolkata

9.   Dayanita Singh, New Delhi

10. Ina Puri, Kolkata

11. Jayadeva Uyangoda, Colombo

12. Kanak Mani Dixit, Kathmandu

13. Laila Tyabji, New Delhi;

14. Manjushree Thapa, Toronto

15. Mohammed Hanif, Karachi

16. Moushumi Bhowmik, Kolkata

17. Nandita Das, Kolkata

18. Nimalka Fernando, Colombo

19. Patricia Mukhim, Shillong

20. Pooja Sood, New Delhi

21. Rachana Singh, New Delhi

22. Raghu Rai, New Delhi

23. Rajdeep Sardesai, New Delhi

24. Ramchandra Guha, Bangalore

25. Romila Thapar, New Delhi

26. Salima Hashmi, Lahore

27. Sanjay Kak, New Delhi

28. Sanjoy Hazarika, Shillong

29. Sankha Ghosh, Kolkata

30. Shabana Azmi, Mumbai

31. Sushila Karki, Kathmandu

32. Vijay Prashad, New Delhi

33. Vikram Seth

34. Vrinda Grover, New Delhi

Note: An earlier version of the article said there are 33 signatories to the petition; Vikram Seth’s name was missing.

Petition Demanding Release of Dr. Shahidul Alam Signed by Global Group of Intellectuals

Alam’s arrest came in the wake of student protests in Bangladesh after a speeding bus killed two teenagers on July 29.

New Delhi: After the unceremonious arrest of prominent Bangladeshi photographer Dr. Shahidul Alam, triggered by an interview with Al Jazeera, a group of scholars and lawyers has released a petition demanding his immediate release. Alam was arrested on August 5, hours after the video went up. The next day, he was charged under Section 57 of Bangladesh’s Information Communications Technology Act, a comprehensive law against electronic communication that “tends to deprave or corrupt” the state.

Also Read: Bangladesh: Concerns Over Free Speech Continue With Opposition-Linked Lawyer’s Arrest

Alam’s arrest came in the wake of student protests in Bangladesh after a speeding bus killed two teenagers on July 29. Protestors took to the streets to demand road safety in a country where, according to Al Jazeera, over 7000 people are killed in traffic accidents each year. In the interview, Alam argued that the protests were fueled by “larger” factors than simply road safety. Among the issues he highlighted were  “the looting of the banks and the gaggling of the media”, “extrajudicial killings, disappearings, bribery and corruption”. Perhaps most contentiously, he discussed the declining credibility of PM Sheikh Hasina Wazed, an unacceptable criticism in the eyes of the government.

The petition addressed to PM Wazed is reprinted below.

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To: Sheikh Hasina Wazed,

Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh

14, October 2018

PETITION DEMANDING RELEASE OF DR. SHAHIDUL ALAM

Madam Prime Minister,

We, the undersigned strongly condemn the detention of Dr. Shahidul Alam, Managing Director, Drik, since 5th August 2018. He was arrested after being interviewed on the Al-Jazeera English news channel, where he had criticized the Bangladeshi government’s response to student protests calling for safer roads after two students were killed and 13 others injured by a speeding bus while waiting at a bus stop. The student protests have been met by disproportionate police force, including the use of tear-gas and rubber bullets, resulting in more than two hundred students being injured.

Global protests on Dr. Alam’s incarceration continue unabated and have included statements made by 12 Nobel Laureates, many eminent citizens and journalists across the globe. We add our voices to theirs.

Dr. Alam has worked tirelessly for decades to promote the welfare of Bangladeshi citizens through his photography and journalism, and to bring national and international attention to their resilience in the face of adversity and oppression. His photographs echo the voices of the people. Dr. Alam’s continued detention is counter to the principles of democracy and freedom of opinion.

Continued detention of Dr. Alam is contrary to the foundational values of rule of law and fundamental rights embodied the Constitution of Bangladesh and its commitments under international law to uphold human rights, fundamental freedoms and civil liberties of its citizens. It is also gravely tarnishing Bangladesh’s image and reputation.

We call for the immediate release of Dr. Shahidul Alam and that all charges are dropped against him in this connection. We also condemn and call for a stop to all other human rights violations in Bangladesh including repression and/or arbitrary detention and to ensure freedom of expression, assembly and association for all.

Signatories:

1. Romila Thapar Professor Emerita, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Romila.thapar@gmail.com

2. Mark Sidel Professor, Law and Public Affairs University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA mark.sidel@wisc.edu

3. Rajeev Dhavan Advocate, Supreme Court of India rdhavan@gmail.com

4. Osama Siddique Executive Director, Law and Policy Network, Pakistan. dr.osamasiddique@gmail.com

5. Mitra Sharafi Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School, USA mitra.sharafi@wisc.edu

6. David Lewis Professor of Social Policy and Development, Department of Social Policy lewisd100@gmail.com

7. Ali Riaz Professor of Political Science, Illinois State University, USA ariaz@ilstu.edu

8. Maya Jasanoff Professor of History and Harvard College Professor Center for European Studies Harvard University, USA. mjasanof@fas.harvard.edu

9. Aziz Rana Professor of Law, Cornell Law School, USA

10. Cyra Choudhury Professor of Law, Florida International University Law School, USA choudhuq@fiu.edu

11. Rohit De Assistant Professor, Department of History, Yale University, USA rohit.de@yale.edu

12. Surabhi Chopra Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Chinese University of Hong Kong surabhic@cuhk.edu.hk

13. Chaumtoli Huq Associate Professor, CUNY Law School, USA

14. Prabhakar Singh Associate Professor of Law, Jindal Global Law School, India prabhakarsingh.adv@gmail.com

15. Usha Natarajan Usha Natarajan, Associate Professor, Department of Law and Associate Director of the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, American University in Cairo, Egypt. unatarajan@aucegypt.edu

16. Narendra Subramanian Professor & Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Political Science, McGill University, Canada narendra.subramanian@mcgill.ca

17. Rituparna De Advocate, Calcutta High Court, India derituparna@yahoo.co.in

18. Sumudu Atapattu Director of UW Law School Research Centers, University of Wisconsin Law School, USA sumudu.atapattu@wisc.edu

19. Tariq Omar Ali Assistant Professor, History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA toali@illinois.edu

20. Neeti Nair, Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia, Global Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Center, 2018-20,USA nn2v@virginia.edu

21. Rachel Sturman, Associate Professor Department of History & Asian Studies Program, Bowdoin College, USA rsturman@bowdoin.edu

22. Amarta Ghose Advocate, Calcutta High Court, India. amarta_ghose@yahoo.co.in

23. Toby Goldbach Associate Professor, School of Law, University of British Columbia, Canada goldbach@allard.ubc.ca

24. Dina Siddiqi Clinical Associate Professor, Liberal Studies, New York University dms17@nyu.edu

25. Matthew Corrigan General Counsel, Australian Law Reform Commission, Australia Matt_corrigan@yahoo.com

26. Nusrat Chowdhury Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Amherst College, USA nchowdhury@amherst.edu

27. Shanthi Senthe Assistant Professor, University of Windsor Faculty of Law, Canada shanthisenthe@hotmail.com

28. Maryam Khan Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives (IDEAS), Pakistan Maryam.paro@gmail.com

29. Samiya Ahmed Selim Associate Professor and Director Center for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh samiya@gmail.com

30. Srimati Basu Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies and Anthropology, University of Kentucky, USA Srimati.basu@uky.edu

31. Shahnaz Rouse Professor, Sarah Lawrence College, USA srouse@sarahlawrence.edu

32. Sanele Sibanda Senior Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Sanele.sibanda@gmail.com

33. Mostofa Haider Lecturer, Law, Curtin University, Australia Mhaider2@gmail.com

34. Cristina Blanco Sío-López Global Young Academy Cristina.Blanco.Sio-Lopez@EUI.eu

35. Dr Kalpouzos Lecturer in Law, City University, U.K. ioannis.kalpouzos.1@city.ac.uk

36. Mircea Raianu Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Maryland, U.S.A. mraianu@umd.edu

37. Subho Basu Associate Professor, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University, Canada subho.basu@mcgill.ca

38. Rishad Choudhury Assistant Professor, History, Oberlin College, USA Rishad.Choudhury@oberlin.edu

39. Melissa Crouch Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia melissa.crouch@unsw.edu.au

40. Daud Ali Associate Professor, South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania, USA. daudali@sas.upenn.edu

41. Svati Shah Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst svatipshah@wost.umass.edu

42. Auritro Majumder Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Houston amajumder@uh.edu

43. Tania Saeed Assistant Professor, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan Tania.saeed@lums.edu.pk

44. Summaiya Zaidi Advocate, Sindh High Court, Pakistan Zaidi.summaiya@gmail.com

45. Nida Kirmani Associate Professor, Sociology, nidakirmani@gmail.com

School of Humanities and Social Sciences Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.

46. Waqas Butt Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada waqas.butt@utoronto.ca

47. Hana Shams Ahmed Graduate Student, York University, Canada Hana.s.ahmed@gmail.com

48. Utpal Sandesara Graduate Student, Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania utpals@mail.med.upenn.edu

49. Natasha Raheja Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University, USA nraheja@cornell.edu

50. Max Stille Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute, Germany. stille@mpib-berlin.mpg.de

51. Saad Quasem Graduate Student, Anthropology, University of Virginia, USA sqsnw@virginia.edu

52. Mizanur Rahman Graduate Student, Political Science, University of Illinois State University, USA mrahman@ilstu.edu

53. Cynthia Farid Graduate Student, University of Wisconsin Law School, USA farid@wisc.e

Murder of Bulgarian Journalist Is the Latest Blow to Press Freedom

The murder of Bulgarian journalist Viktoria Marinovais is the latest in an alarming series of attacks that have been perpetuated against journalists and media outlets around the world.

Sofia: A Bulgarian man has been detained in Germany and charged with the rape and murder of television journalist Viktoria Marinova, Bulgarian officials said on Wednesday.

The suspect, who was identified as 21-year-old Severin Krasimirov, was arrested on Tuesday at the request of Bulgaria, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov told reporters at a briefing attended by Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

Bulgarian authorities were expecting Germany to transfer him to their territory, Marinov said.

The body of the 30-year-old Bulgarian journalist, who police said had been raped, beaten and suffocated, was found on Saturday.

Viktoria Marinova had recently reported on alleged fraud involving European Union funds. On her last TV show, on Sept. 30, Marinova introduced two journalists who were investigating suspected corruption involving EU funds and said her own show, “detector”, on local television station NTV, would carry out similar investigations.

Her death has angered many in Bulgaria, where people are frustrated with corruption and an inefficient judiciary that has been criticised by the European Commission.

Chief prosecutor Tsatsarov told the news conference that he could not say at this stage if the murder was linked to Marinova’s work as a journalist. The collected evidence so far pointed to a spontaneous attack and sexual assault, he said.

“We have collected a lot of evidence which for the time being suggests that the person is guilty. He has been charged in absence for two crimes – rape and premeditated murder with extreme cruelty,” Tsatsarov said. “We cannot state at this point that her murder is linked to her professional activity. We are continuing to work on all possible options.”

Global threat to journalists safety

The Marinova’s murder is the second attack on a journalist in the past one month itself. Last week, prominent Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was reported missing after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul and is presumed to have been killed, according to two Turkish sources.

Her murder is also the third in a European Union country within a year. Last October, Daphne Caruana Galizia, one of Malta’s best-known investigative journalists, was killed when a powerful bomb blew up her car. Earlier, in February 2018, Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée were shot dead as Kuciak was investigating fraud involving businessmen with Slovak political ties, and suspected mafia links of Italians with businesses in Slovakia. In August 2017, Swedish freelance journalist Kim Wall was reported missing and found murdered in October when she was researching a story on Danish inventor Peter Madsen.

Amidst the global rise of right-wing populism, the clampdown on journalists and press freedom is increasingly worrying. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has estimated that around 57 journalists were killed in 2018 alone, while an additional 155 journalists are currently imprisoned around the world. The RSF World Press Freedom Index also states that there is a “growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies”.

Last month, a court in Myanmar found two Reuters journalists guilty of breaching a law on state secrets and jailed them for seven years, a decision which was defended by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Neighbouring Bangladesh has also arrested several journalists and activists, including Shahidul Alam, a prominent social activist and photographer, who was charged under a controversial section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology law that carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Bangladesh has also enacted the draconian Digital Security Act in another bid to stifle free speech and press freedom by the Sheikh Hasina led government.

US President Donald Trump is also spearheading the denigration of media outlets, accusing the US press of being an “enemy of the American people.” His repeated attacks on the media’s credibility and legitimacy have wide-ranging and dangerous implications for the safety of journalists and press freedom. In August, the UN expert on free expression condemned the president’s dangerous rhetoric and said it was eroding public trust in the media and could spark violence against journalists. Donald Trump has further empowered a global war of attrition against activists and journalists, which is setting an alarming trend for press freedom in the world.

(With inputs from Reuters)

Bangladesh to Consider Amending Law Seen Curbing Free Speech

A Bangladeshi minister has said that the cabinet will consider amending the Digital Security Act that the nation’s parliament passed combining the colonial-era Official Secrets Act with tough new provisions such as allowing police to arrest individuals without a warrant,

Dhaka: Bangladesh will consider making changes to a proposed law that journalists and countries such as the US say could suppress free speech, a government minister said on Sunday after a meeting with a group of editors.

The South Asian nation’s parliament passed the Digital Security Act on Sept. 19, combining the colonial-era Official Secrets Act with tough new provisions such as allowing police to arrest individuals without a warrant.

It would have come into force with the signature of President Abdul Hamid ahead of a general election expected in December.

But Anisul Huq, Bangladesh’s law, justice and parliamentary affairs minister, said the concerns will be raised in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet. He did not say when that could happen.

“We had a detailed discussion with representatives of the Editors’ Council and took serious note of their concerns,” Huq told Reuters.

“We assured them that if the cabinet agrees, then we may make some amendments. We will also take some measures to make (some of the contentious) sections clear that those will not target the journalist community or silence their voices to reveal the truth.”

The government will again meet with the journalists once the matter is taken up in the cabinet, Huq said.

Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, who attended the meeting in his capacity as editor of the Bangla daily Manab Zamin, said: “It’s a rare instance that after passing a law in parliament the cabinet has agreed to sit again to discuss that.

“For now, we are not going to hold any protest or movement as the minister has promised to do something positive. We will wait until that cabinet decision.”

US Concern 

The proposed law stipulates a maximum jail sentence of 14 years for espionage if an individual is found secretly recording information with electronic instruments inside a government building or for spreading “propaganda” against Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

A further element journalists have opposed is the inclusion of the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which includes a 14-year sentence for sharing state secrets with an enemy.

Since Hasina’s election victory in 2009 scores of people, including journalists, have been jailed in Bangladesh for criticising the government on the internet. A Bangladesh court this month rejected bail for prominent social activist and photographer Shahidul Alam, who was arrested last month for spreading “propaganda and false information” during widespread student protests.

The proposed law has also attracted strong criticism internationally.

“The US shares the concerns of the international community that the recently passed Digital Security Act could be used to suppress and criminalise free speech, all to the detriment of Bangladesh’s democracy, development and prosperity,” the U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat, said in a statement on Sunday.

“We encourage the Government of Bangladesh to consider changes to the law that would bring it into conformity with the Bangladesh constitution and with Bangladesh’s international commitments on human, civil and political rights.”

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, meanwhile, held a public meeting in Dhaka on Sunday, attended by tens of thousands of people, to demand that former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia be released from jail.

Khaleda was jailed in February for five years on what BNP describes as trumped-up corruption charges, an allegation the government denies, citing court independence.

(Reuters)

What Can Tulip Siddiq Do to Lessen Human Rights Abuse in Bangladesh?

With her aunt Bangladesh PM Sheik Hasina in London, the question of Siddiq’s role in seeking to mitigate Bangladesh’s worst human rights abuses comes to the fore again.

Dhaka: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrived in London late Friday on her way to New York to take part in next week’s United Nations General Assembly.

According to press reports, she will stay in the capital for a few days – in Claridges no less – and meet party activists as well as members of her own family.

Hasina has two main family members in London. Her younger sister, Sheikh Rehana and her niece, the British Member of Parliament Tulip Siddiq.

In November 2016, Private Eye first reported that whilst Tulip Siddiq had been campaigning hard for the release of her constituent, the Iranian-British dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe, from detention in Iran, she had not lifted a finger in relation to those picked up and literally made to disappear by government agencies in Bangladesh.

The magazine stated, that with the Iranian authorities failing to “listen to a word she says” perhaps she should turn her attention to “influencing a political regime … where she has very direct access to the country’s most senior leaders.”

Channel 4 News picked the story a year later when its reporters directly asked the question about why the Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn had refused to use her influence to help the family of a particular disappeared lawyer in Bangladesh, Ahmed Bin Quasem, whose mother had written directly to Siddiq asking for her help.

Now, with her aunt – and Bangladesh’s prime minister – in London, again, the question of Siddiq’s role in seeking to mitigate Bangladesh’s worst human rights abuses comes to the fore.

Of course, it is not just Siddiq’s maternal aunt who has significant political power in the country. Her paternal uncle, Tarique Ahmed Siddique is the defence and security adviser to Hasina. Her cousin (the son of the prime minister) Sajeeb Wazed Joy, is another government adviser as well as being a key propagandist of the government. Her brother Rezwan Siddiq helps run a pro-government research centre; and her mother, Rehana Siddiq, is also a player within the party.

And Siddiq’s mother, cousin and brother are all talked about as possible successors to Hasina to lead the Awami League, the party in power in Bangladesh.

Moreover, Tulip Siddiq is also very close to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, calling her a ‘role model’ for her daughter. When she first won her North London seat in 2015 the newly elected MP said, “Today I remember my Auntie Sheikh Hasina. I learnt how to campaign from her. And I learnt about social justice from her.” When she made her maiden speech in Parliament, who other than Sheikh Hasina was present.

Although she lives in Britain, Tulip has been directly involved in Bangladesh politics. As a Labour party activist, before she became an MP, Tulip described herself on her website (now removed) as an “Awami League spokesperson” and campaigned in Bangladesh for the party. In 2011, she was listed as a delegate of the Bangladesh government at the 66th UN general assembly alongside her mother Rehana Siddiq.

Tulip Siddiq’s close proximity to those ruling Bangladesh is therefore undeniable and is therefore unique amongst the 650 UK MPs in having such close and intimate relations to a ruling party of another country.

The question of course – one which no other Member of Parliament has to face – is whether or not Siddiq, as a British member of parliament, should be using this proximity to lobby publicly and privately, with her aunt and other members of her family in Bangladesh, significant human rights abuses in the country?

In relation to the disappeared lawyer Ahmed Bin Quasem, Tulip justified her inaction to Channel 4 News by stating, “I was born in London and serve as a British Member of Parliament. The focus of my work is spent on delivering for the residents of Hampstead and Kilburn who elected me to represent them.”

She went on to add: “The fact that some members of my family are involved in politics in Bangladesh has long been a matter of public record which I have not hidden from. That said, I have no capability nor desire to influence politics in Bangladesh.”

She also implied that those who sought to argue that she did were racist. “Be very careful. I’m not Bangladeshi,” she told Channel 4 News when they tried to interview her at a rally. She then went on to make a police complaint arguing that she was subject to “racially aggravated assault” by the television news team.

It is of course the case that Quasem’s mother was neither a British citizen nor Tulip Siddiq’s constituent and the MP therefore had no parliamentary obligation to take up his case.

But that did not remove her moral obligation as a British member of parliament to use her best efforts to seek his release.

Those who do not know Bangladesh politics may not appreciate the extraordinary influence Siddiq, as a member of the ruling family, can wield in Bangladesh politics. All the country’s institutions, particularly the law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system, are corrupt and highly politicised. In the main, they do exactly what their political masters tell them to do. And the most significant of those political masters are members of the current ruling family – of which Tulip is a part.

Channel Four News came back to the issue of Bangladesh’s human rights situation in April 2017, in a film about a number of other disappearances in Bangladesh involving this time British families, who had written to her about their relatives.

Again, Tulip responded to the families by saying that she could not take up their cases as they were not her constituents, but did go further in obliquely criticising disappearances in Bangladesh. She said, “as a committed human rights activist, I deplore the use of extra-judicial detention and any human rights abuses anywhere in the world, including in Bangladesh. I understand and have sympathy for the plight of anyone whose loved one disappears in such a way.”

This was a private communication – not a public condemnation of Bangladesh human rights – but it was a step beyond her previously maintained silence on the human rights situation in the country.

More recently, Tulip Siddiq has publicly criticised the Bangladesh government in its detention of the highly reputed photographer, Shahidul Alam. She was quoted by the Times newspaper as saying, that his detention was “deeply distressing and should end immediately”. She also said that Bangladesh “must uphold international standards of justice in treating its own citizens” and that she “would hope our Foreign Office will convey that message in stark terms to a country that is seen as a close ally.”

However – unlike the other two Bangladesh origin MPs – she has not issued a public statement as they have done. She has also not as far as anyone knows, lobbied her aunt and other family members to ensure his release.

And neither has she sought the release of any of the dozens of other men who have disappeared in the country.

With her aunt in London for a few days, this is an ideal opportunity for Siddiq to take her Aunt to one side and push for the release of all those disappeared and arbitrarily detained.

Ironically, though Tulip Siddiq is representing those living in her North London constituency, as an MP she could do far more good through her influence over her family members that rule Bangladesh, than she will ever do for her constituents in Kilburn and Hampstead. As a former employee of Amnesty International she should appreciate the position provided to her as a Member of Parliament and use it for the public good to help those victimised by Bangladesh’s state agencies.

And she would be applauded if only she would do that.

David Bergman is a journalist who also runs the Bangladesh Politico blog. He happens to be married to one of the lawyers representing Shahidul Alam. Follow him on Twitter @davidbangladesh.

How Speeding Bus Drivers Sparked a Student Insurrection in Dhaka

Young people raised their voices in the streets and online – but a government crackdown seeks to silence them.

Traffic jams – or “janjot”, as locals call them – are a fundamental part of life in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Sometimes the slowness of the traffic can give you a sense of claustrophobia, as you’re trapped between vehicles that have become immovable objects. It’s easy to see why there is a growing ride-sharing business for motorbikes, which can weave their way through the traffic more quickly. Upmarket apartment blocks even advertise helipad access, to help rich citizens deal with Dhaka’s traffic problem.

Although slowness can feel like the norm there, when acceleration becomes possible, it can be deadly. Dhaka’s notoriously overworked and underpaid bus drivers race each other to pick up passengers, and earn on commission. Reports of corruption in Bangladesh’s transport sector suggest that poorly regulated private companies use bribery to obtain licences for unqualified and inexperienced drivers.

And so when two teenagers were killed by a speeding bus in July 2018, school children and college students took to the streets to do what – in their view – the government should have been doing all along: check the age and licences of drivers, and raise awareness of the dangers faced by citizens. The students set up blockades, and the traffic crawled through the streets at an even slower pace than usual.

At first, the government seemed willing to cooperate with the student demands. But there was mistrust on all sides: the government was concerned that a broader conspiracy was unfolding to undermine the regime, while students believed that links between government and the bus companies would frustrate their demands.

Social media shut down

As the protests continued for more than a week, the situation in Dhaka deteriorated. Conflict broke out: police clashed with protesters, and protesters with pro-government groups. Several journalists reported being attacked and harassed while filming in the streets. And a digital fog descended over the city, as the government blocked mobile internet access, making it harder to share images and information on social media.

Internationally renowned photographer and activist Shahidul Alam took to the street of his city to capture the protests. He shared videos to social media, and criticised the government’s handling of the protests in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Days later, government personnel arrived at his apartment to arrest him for spreading “false” and “provocative” information. Appearing in court the following day, the photographer said he was beaten in custody. In his latest hearing, on September 11, he was reportedly denied bail.

Speed and politics

Control over movement through the city has long been an obsession for governments the world over. Goods, vehicles and people must be able to move quickly, to promote business and development. But they must also be controlled and monitored, and in this sense the state becomes a system of brakes, imposing checkpoints, border controls, speed ramps, traffic lights and speed limits.

French philosopher Paul Virilio noted how politicians and bureaucrats agonise about the tipping point where they could lose control of the city, when the streets could be occupied, when the people put a break on circulation or when disorderly circulation results in chaos.

Virilio suggested that the development and design of Paris in the 19th century was orchestrated to ensure that streets could be policed as efficiently as possible – wide boulevards were intended to prevent blockades. Transparency was another obsession, making the city visible, with innovations such as street lighting (Paris, after all, is the city of lights).

Transparency makes city residents more secure – and offers up the urban landscape for surveillance by police and militaries. In recent years, such activities have intensified. From the police car on the street, to CCTV cameras on buildings, to the drones in the sky, new vehicles and technologies have become vital in recording and deterring certain behaviour.

Yet in societies equipped with smart phones, surveillance is no longer the practice of the state alone. As civilians block the streets in revolt, they can simultaneously circulate information and imagery to inform their compatriots about events. In Dhaka, and across Bangladesh, controlling the movement of information has become as critical to the state’s authority as the movement of people, goods or vehicles through the city.

Artists and photographers have the ability to circulate images and information in ways that can change how people see the world – and evade the control of the state. As a result, the government has become increasingly paranoid about the rise of “digital Bangladesh”, introducing new laws which critics say can be used to silence opposition.

Now it seems the government has resorted to a strategy of deterrence. Locking up Alam sends a message: if this can happen to a well regarded, internationally renowned photographer, it can happen to you. But at a time when civilians can share information and take to the streets faster than ever before, the imprisonment of Alam does little more than add to the government’s image as a vindictive state, desperate to maintain control.The Conversation

Mark Lacy, Senior lecturer, Politics, Philosophy, and Religon, Lancaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Bangladesh Court Rejects Bail for Photographer Shahidul Alam

Shahidul Alam’s plea for bail was turned down by a Bangladesh court on Tuesday for spreading “propaganda and false information” during wide anti-government student protests over corruption and authoritarian rule.

Dhaka: A Bangladesh court on Tuesday turned down a plea for bail by a prominent social activist and photographer arrested last month for spreading “propaganda and false information” during widespread student protests.

Shahidul Alam, 63, is being investigated under a controversial section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology law that carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, sparking criticism from rights groups.

He was picked up from his home hours after giving an interview to Al Jazeera, in which he accused the government of extrajudicial killings and corruption.

He had also posted comments on social media that a student wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling party was trying to attack the protesters.

What began as an outpouring of anger over the failings of an unregulated transport industry after a speeding bus killed two students in Dhaka in July escalated into the widest anti-government protests in the South Asian nation in years, providing a focus for discontent with what critics see as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

The protests ended on August 6.

Hasina has already faced criticism from international human rights activists over a drugs crackdown in which police have shot dead more than 200 people since May.

“Mr. Alam spoke dangerously and falsely about the situation surrounding the Bangladeshi student road safety protest,” the government said in a statement at the beginning of the month. “Mr. Alam’s factually incorrect comments played a major role in instigating the protest’s violent turn.”

(Reuters)