Political crisis in Bangladesh: RSF calls on the interim government to protect journalists

On Monday, 5 August, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned amidst violently repressed protests against her government. One of the top priorities for the interim government - headed by Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize - should be protecting the press from the outrageous violence that has been perpetrated against journalists during these deadly demonstrations. The protests, which started in July when students took to the streets to oppose against a controverisal quota system for civil service jobs, has now caused over 400deaths by AFP's estimates. RSF has condemnedthese physical attacks against media professionals, which have killed five journalists and injured 250, according to local media. The facilities of at least nine TV stations have been vandalized, according to RSF's information.

At least 432 people, including five journalists, have lost their lives in the crackdown on protests according to an estimate by the AFP. On Sunday August 4, Pradip Kumar Bhowmik, correspondent for the daily Khoborpatrain the Sirajganj region, was the latest journalist to lose his life in the ongoing protests. He was killed in clashes at the press club in the northern town of Raiganj. Before Kumar, Mehedi Hasan,journalist with the news website Dhaka Times,was shot in the head on 18 July while covering clashes between protesters and police in a southern district of the capital. On the same day, Shakil Hossain,an employee of the daily Bhorer Awaj,was killed while reporting in the town of Gazipur, north of Dhaka. On July 19, Abu Taher Md Turab, who worked for the newspapers Daily Naya Digantaand Daily Jalalabad,died under police bullets in the town of Sylhet, and Tahir Zaman Priyo, videojournalist for the website TheReport.live, was killed by law enforcement officers in the middle of a rally in the capital.

Targeted for their journalism

Several TV stations were targeted by anti-government protesters amid a spate of violence committed mainly in clashes between police and demonstrators,. On August 5 and 6, at least nine private channels saw their headquarters ransacked - some were set on fire - which forced them to interrupt their broadcasting. The stations, Ekattor TV, Somoy TV, Independent Television, My TV, Bijoy TV, DBC News, ATN News, ATN Banglaand Gaan Bangla,were potentially targeted for being considered as supporters of the prime minister and her party, the Awami League.

One journalist from one of the aforementioned TV channels told RSF via encrypted messaging from an undisclosed location that she had to leave her home to escape death threats. Her name appears on a "wanted list" that has been made public by Islamist militants acting out after years of being marginalized by Sheikh Hasina's Awami League.

The prime minister's fifteen years of autocratic rule leave a very bleak legacy when it comes to press freedom. The proportion of the population with access to the Internet has exploded in the past decade, rising from 4.5% in 2011 to 38.9% in 2021 according to the World Bank, yet in January, the government passed a draconian cybersecurity lawthat muzzled online journalists. By 2021, Sheikh Hasina had already been listed by RSF as one of 37 predators of press freedom.

Between 2023 and 2024, Bangladesh dropped from 163rd to 165th place out of 180 countries in the RSF Press Freedom Index.