ATTACKS on and harassment of journalists are reported to have surged, especially beginning with February after such incidents came down that had a worrying increase since August 2024, when the prime minister Sheikh Hasina was deposed in a mass uprising and an interim government assumed office three days later. Rights group Ain O Salish Kendra data report that 62 cases of attacks on and harassment of journalists took place in January and February, with 42 having taken place only in February. The rights group reports 358 cases in all between August 2024 and this February, with 154 reported in August, 74 in September, 34 in October, 22 in November and 12 in December. Six of the incidents that took place in January-February are cases of harassment, torture and threat reportedly by the law enforcement agencies. In one case, it was a death threat. Five cases have been filed over the publication of reports. Twelve were attacks, threat, harassment and the hurling of a bomb reportedly by extremism suspects. Six are reported to have been committed allegedly by Bangladesh Nationalist Party activists. The group says that 25 incidents took place when journalists discharged their duties.
It is in this context that rights groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Amnesty International, Artcile 19, Human Rights Watch, Forum-Asia, Civicus, Fortify Rights, Front Line Defenders and Pen America on March 21 urged the government to protect the freedom of expression and opinion. What appears worrying is that the victims hardly resort to legal redress as they say that such events would entail further harassment although the government urges such victims to file cases to hold perpetrators to account. Not all the attacks involve state actors, but the government has the responsibility to head off such attacks, or at least deal with them after they happen, even when they involve non-state actors. The government says that many of the reported incidents took over personal issues. Even if they so do, it is the responsibility of the government to attend to the attacks, which constitute crimes. It might be the case that many resolve the matter through negotiations. But this also suggests fears, which the government has failed to dispel, that prompt the victims to resort to negotiations. It is said that journalists being subjected to torture and harassment has happened in the tenure of all governments, but this means that no government has ever tried to stave off attacks on journalists and to create an enabling environment for them.
It is, therefore, time that the interim government, which has assumed office riding on an uprising that flared up from protests against discrimination, protected journalists and their freedom of expression and opinion.