THE closure of the Bangla daily Amar Desh on Tuesday night, which followed after the government cancelled its declaration, is obviously undemocratic and seemingly illegal. Ominously, the discontinuation of its publication, come as it does in the wake of the closure of the private news television Channel 1 and the blocking of access to Facebook, the social networking site, looks to be part of an emerging pattern that seems to stem from the Awami League-led government's increasing intolerance with dissenting as well as divergent views. Needless to say, both Channel 1 and Amar Desh have been quite critical of the government's policies and actions, whereas an increasing number of people have used Facebook, to articulate and circulate their anger and angst at, and displeasure and disenchantment with, the incumbents. Such actions of the government may have been aimed at, and may have succeeded to, induce a sense of fear among the journalists, electronic and print, especially among those who have been persistent with the criticism of the government's undemocratic and anti-people policies and actions, so as to make them fall in line and exercise self-censorship. On the whole, the closure of Amar Desh could have just been a government ploy to impinge on press freedom.
The government seems to have been cross with Amar Desh for quite some time and its animosity towards the newspaper apparently peaked when the latter ran a report on the alleged involvement of the prime minister's son in high-profile corruption. Ever since, the acting editor of the paper, Mahmudur Rahman, has been subjected to legal and extra-legal harassments; defamation cases were filed with several lower courts across the country while he came under attack, supposedly by ruling party exponents, on more occasions than one. Moreover, the circumstances leading to the closure of the newspaper looked dodgy, to say the least. Allegations have it that the publisher of the paper was detained by the National Security Intelligence for about six hours on Tuesday. Later, in the evening, he filed a case with the Tejgaon police accusing Mahmud of continuing to use his name as the publisher although he had resigned on December 4, 2008. The legal technicalities which resulted in the cancellation of the newspaper's declaration seem to have been a result of the government's design. According to a report published in New Age on Wednesday, Mahmud told a news conference that he had informed the authorities of the changes at Amar Desh, secured a no objection certificate from the Department of Films and Publications and submitted applications to the deputy commissioner and other officials concerned for permission to change the names of the printer and the publisher 'but there was no response.'
Overall, the government's actions, one may say, are open to be construed as being ultimately geared towards gagging the press. Independent media is a prime prerequisite for a functional democracy, for it contributes to ensuring democratic accountability of the government by keeping a constant watch on its actions and policies, and also helps the people form informed opinions. Besides, press freedom is a constitutional obligation of the state. The government needs to realise, or be made to realise, that infringement of press freedom ultimately amounts to an attempt at denying the people's aspiration for democratic growth of the state and society. Hence, as we protest against the government's actions against Amar Desh, we demand that it should be allowed to resume publication immediately.
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