City Desk: Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) Acting President Obaidur Rahman Shaheen and Secretary General Quader Gani Chowdhury and Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) President Md. Shahidul Islam and General Secretary Khurshid Alam condemned and protested the unwanted interference and threats against the media in a statement.
In a joint statement on Monday (July 7), they said that restoring freedom of speech, which was suppressed during the regime of dictator Sheikh Hasina, was one of the goals of the July Uprising.
Deviating from that spirit, some of the main leaders of the July Uprising are making insults and threats against journalists. It is completely inappropriate and unacceptable to show such threats instead of allowing the media to develop independently. The threat made by one of the top leaders of the NCP in Rajshahi on Sunday (July 6) is an obstacle to independent journalism.
In a statement, the journalist leaders said, “We can hear the footsteps of fascism in the NCP leader’s statement. It should be remembered that the students did not risk their lives for threats to journalists or mob justice to carry out the July uprising.”
The journalist leaders said, addressing the threatening NCP leader, “I would like to remind you that more than 60 journalists were killed during the fallen fascist government. Six journalists were martyred while performing their duties during the July Revolution alone. Not only that, journalists were regularly active in street protests in support of the student movement in July-August.”
The statement said, “One of the reasons for the bloody mass uprising of the students in July was to ensure freedom of expression and the press. The threat that the NCP leader has made to journalists today is against the spirit of the July Revolution. We did not expect this from a student leader of the July Revolution.”
BFUJ and DUJ leaders said, “As a traditional platform for protecting the rights of journalists and achieving freedom of expression, we have not accepted such unwanted and unjust interference in the past, and we will not accept it now. If anyone has any objections or complaints about the role of the media, they can take recourse to the law, courts and the Press Council for redressal. But the tendency to take such laws into their own hands is condemnable. We call on the concerned quarters to refrain from such activities.”
