The Editors’ Council on Saturday said that murder cases were being filed against journalists indiscriminately, which were a misuse of laws and also a violation of the interim government’s promise for free journalism.
The council, in a statement, also said that legal actions could be taken based on specific allegations against any journalist for committing any crimes.Â
‘The council wants to state firmly that these cases are the abuse of the existing laws and violation of the promise of the interim government for independent journalism,’ said the statement signed by the council president Mahfuz Anam and general secretary Dewan Hanif Mahmud.
It said that journalism on partisan lines, and devoid of ethics and professionalism should be shunned. Â
The Bangladesh Press Council can form a committee to launch investigations against the journalists who supported different repressive activities of the past government in the name of journalism, the statement said.
If journalists were found guilty, they could be punished under the Press Council Act, it said and added that, for their other crimes, they could be tried under the existing law based on the recommendations of the Press Council.
The statement mentioned that the attempts by the past government to suppress the voices of the journalists using different restrictive laws including the Digital Security Act, 2018, and the Cyber Security Act, 2023, and harassment through detention and arrests were widely condemned and criticised in the global arena.  Â
The council also believed that the trend of lodging murder cases against journalists was damaging the image of the interim government in the international arena, the statement said.
The Editors’ Council urged the government to relieve the journalists of these cases immediately if their involvement was not found in probes.