Journos targeted during July protests in Bangladesh

Staff Reporter :

Journalists covering the July 2024 student-led protests in Bangladesh were subjected to severe threats, violence, and censorship by intelligence agencies and security forces, a new report by the United Nations reveals.

The report highlights the growing risks faced by the press during periods of political unrest, underscoring the need for enhanced protections for media personnel in the region.

The report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), released from Geneva on February 12, details the systemic repression of press freedom through threats, harassment, and physical assaults.

The report outlines that journalists were not only subjected to threats from intelligence operatives of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) and National Security Intelligence (NSI), but also targeted in violent crackdowns by security forces.

These measures aimed to suppress independent reporting on the protests that took place between July 15 and August 5, 2024.

According to the OHCHR findings, Ministry of Information officials, along with DGFI and NSI agents, directly pressured media professionals.

Editors and journalists were subjected to coercion through phone calls, office visits, and even personal confrontations at their homes.

In many cases, authorities demanded modifications to news reports or the complete cessation of coverage concerning government actions against the protesters.

The suppression of media was not limited to intimidation; security forces engaged in direct violence against journalists.

The report documented that at least six journalists lost their lives in Dhaka, Sylhet, and Sirajganj, while around 200 sustained
injuries.

Testimonies from journalists described a pervasive environment of fear, with security forces firing indiscriminately at protest sites, often targeting media personnel specifically to prevent them from documenting abuses.

Photographers, in particular, were subjected to aggressive actions from various quarters attempting to avoid visual evidence of the crackdown. On July 18, a journalist was fatally shot by police while covering protests in Jatrabari.

The following day, during a rally of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in Sylhet, police opened fire with shotguns loaded with lethal ammunition. A journalist photographing the event was among those killed.

Additional accounts from July 19 indicate that a photojournalist on Elephant Road in Dhaka was warned by police that he would be shot if he continued taking photographs.

Shortly thereafter, officers fired shotgun rounds at another journalist standing beside his cameraman, wounding him in the neck and limbs with metal pellets.

On the same day in Paltan, law enforcement officers shot metal pellets into a crowd of protesters without prior warning, injuring another journalist.

The OHCHR report also noted that some media outlets engaged in the dissemination of misinformation, allegedly at the behest of intelligence agencies and government officials.

In one alarming instance, a media outlet was raided by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers who physically assaulted employees and attempted to force them at gunpoint to disclose the identity of a journalist who had obtained sensitive information on human rights violations committed by the military.

NSI agents later threatened the outlet, ensuring the suppression of the report.