Editorial
Chief adviser's press freedom assertion
can be no farther from truth THE chief adviser to the military-driven interim government has once again fudged the truth in stating that the press has enjoyed full freedom during the emergency rule. The chief adviser made the statement during his meeting with a delegation of the International Press Institute on Tuesday, according to a report published in New Age on Wednesday. While this is not the first time that he has made such a blatantly untrue statement, his public insistence that the press has been allowed to work freely and without restrictions during his tenure is making it more and more obvious that he is either intentionally making misleading statements or is absolutely unaware of the interference, intimidation and harassment that has been faced by the news media in the past two years. Whatever the case may be, we feel that it is essential to set the record straight.
The news media in Bangladesh has not been free of intimidation and control during the current period of emergency as the chief adviser has suggested. As a matter of fact, the amount of interference and intimidation faced by the news media in general and harassment faced by newsmen in particular have been significantly higher than anything experienced in the previous fifteen years. From suggestive, and at times threatening, phone calls made to news editors by members of intelligence and security agencies, to summoning editors to intelligence agency headquarters to admonish them for their audacity in criticising the anti-people policies and repressive actions of this regime, the news media has had to endure much in the past two years. The electronic media organisations have probably had it the worst, with their news coverage often dictated by members of intelligence and security agencies. One television channel was shut down entirely, albeit on a technicality, seemingly because of its extensive coverage of anti-government protests on the Dhaka University campuses in August 2007. Even certain issues of foreign publications were prevented from distribution in this country because of their coverage of the emergency situation in Bangladesh.
Even if the chief adviser does not wish to admit to the fact that serious intimidation of the press has taken place under his watch, he cannot deny that the Emergency Powers Rules that his government promulgated following the declaration of the state of emergency by the president on January 11, 2007 included a provision for restrictions on the media; the provision was only recently omitted from the EPR. To state so equivocally that the press has enjoyed full freedoms after two years of press harassment by his government is as preposterous as it is unacceptable. Instead of making such statements, the chief adviser should at least ensure that the press enjoys full freedom in the remaining days of his tenure, particularly with regard to elections coverage. http://www.newagebd.com/2008/dec/05/edit.html
এরশাদ কে আবার বাংলাদেশের প্রেসিডেন্ট হিসাবে আপনার সহ্য হবে ? |