According to a new United Nations (UN) rights office study, journalists were coerced into not covering the July rebellion by Bangladesh’s intelligence services, such as DGFI and NSI operatives.
It also showed how, during the student-led movement, security agents fired randomly at protestors, injuring journalists.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report, “Editors and journalists were intimidated by Ministry of Information officials and DGFI and NSI agents, including senior officials from the Ministry and DGFI, by calling them, coming to their offices and private homes, and demanding changes to their reporting and broadcasting.”
The Office of the OHCHR released its Fact-Finding Report titled “Human Rights Violations and Abuses related to the Protests of July and August 2024 in Bangladesh” from its Geneva office on February 12.
The report showed the authorities violated the rights to freedom of expression and media indiscriminately by intimidating and arresting journalists.
“Journalists testified about a general climate of intimidation and pressure from media owners close to the Awami League who did not allow them to freely report on the protests or the Government’s use of force to suppress them.”
According to the investigation, several media outlets instead disseminated false information that seemed to have been created and disseminated by government and intelligence officers.
In one instance, in order to identify a journalist who had gathered evidence revealing grave transgressions by military personnel, RAB officers stormed a media organization, attacked staff, and attempted to threaten them with guns.
NSI agents issued threats against that media outlet to ensure that this information was not published, according to the fact-finding report.
during least six journalists were killed during or near protests in Dhaka, Sylhet, and Sirajganj during the July revolt that lasted from July 15 to August 5, 2024, while roughly 200 journalists were injured.
The first-hand testimony obtained by the found that journalists were victims of security forces’ indiscriminate firing at protesters, while they were often directly targeted with violence due to exercise of their profession.
Photojournalists were especially subject to aggressions by different actors, who did not wish their involvement in events to be recorded.
On July 18, a journalist was shot and killed by police while he was covering protests in Jatrabari.
On July 19 in Sylhet, police fired shotguns loaded with lethal ammunition at a BNP rally. Some of the protesters defended themselves with their flag poles and bricks in response. Among those shot and killed by the police was a journalist who was taking photos at the protest.
On July 19, police in Dhaka informed a photojournalist on Elephant Road that he would be shot if he continued to take pictures.
A few minutes later, another journalist standing close to his cameraman with a microphone was shot by multiple police officers in the same place using shotguns loaded with deadly metal pellets. He suffered injuries to his neck and arms from a metal shot.
According to the UN report, police opened fire on demonstrators without warning that same day in Paltan, injuring a journalist with a metal shot.
*
Email *
Website
