Journalists’ Front calls for release of imprisoned colleagues

The Anti-Repression Journalists’ Front has expressed concern over the detention of journalists Shyamol Dutta, Mozammel Babu, Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa for more than two years. The organisation has also called for their release and the withdrawal of cases filed against journalists.

The demand was made in a statement issued on Wednesday (September 16) by the organisation’s convener Aktar Hossain and member secretary Sheikh Jamal.

In the statement, they said keeping professional journalists in jail for an extended period amounted to an attempt to silence the media and create obstacles to independent journalism.

They alleged that journalists were not only being held for more than two years but were also being harassed by naming them as accused in cases involving incidents with which they had no connection. They described this as a violation of human rights.

The statement said Shyamol Dutta and Mozammel Babu were detained on September 16, 2024, while Shakil Ahmed and Farzana Rupa were detained on August 21 of the same year. It also said more than 50 journalists, including Sheikh Jamal, Manzurul Alam Panna, Anis Alomgir and Sheikh Emon Ahmed, were arrested across the country, with some still in detention.

According to the organisation, murder cases have been filed against 446 journalists across the country, including senior journalists working for national newspapers, television channels and online news portals. The cases remain pending, it said.

The statement further claimed that 118 journalists, including Sumanta Chakraborty, Mehedi Mamun, Abdur Rahman, Probir Das, Shyamol Nandi and Meherul Sujon, were physically harassed or assaulted while performing their professional duties. It also said 13 journalists, including Mehedi Hasan, Shakil Hossain, Tahir Zaman, ATM Turab, Pradip Kumar Bhowmik and Sohel Akhanji, had been killed.

The leaders said journalists were working to expose various irregularities and crimes across the country while also contributing to the protection of human rights. They said harassing journalists by filing murder cases against them amounted to a violation of human rights.

The Anti-Repression Journalists’ Front called for the withdrawal of what it described as “false” cases filed against journalists and demanded the release of those who remain detained.