"We're numbah one! We're numbah one!"
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) yesterday tagged Bangladesh as the most violent country for newspersons in Asia in an investigation that also expressed deep concern at repression on them here. After a weeklong fact-finding visit to Bangladesh, a four-member delegation of the New York-based media watchdog asked the government from a press conference at the bar at the Hotel Sonargaon to open investigations into threats to journalists and prosecute the killers. "In Bangladesh journalists are working increasingly under threat," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper from the US, who led the team of Abi Wright from the US, Iqbal Athas from Sri Lanka and Andreas Harsono from Indonesia. Listing savage attacks on journalists -- from Tipu Sultan to Manik Saha, she said: "I can't imagine to take risk to continue my profession here as journalist. It takes real courage to be a journalist in Bangladesh." Cooper said physical assaults and intimidation were almost commonplace, especially in rural areas where journalists are threatened, beaten severely, or murdered just for reporting. She also expressed concern at the stabbing of eminent writer Humayun Azad in what she said was a clear attack on freedom of writing and expression. Wright took a swipe at the state-controlled BSS news agency for mass termination of journalists on political grounds. "Those who try to silence journalists must be held accountable," the CPJ emphasised in a statement. "Without justice 
the cycle of violence will continue, and so will Bangladesh's reputation as the most violent country in Asia for journalists," the organisation said.
| Tipoo Sultan's been dead for 200 years. Have assaults on journalists been going on for that long? Or is there somebody running around thumping newsies who's also using Tipoo's name? |
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