Bangladesh, Khulna

Country Bangladesh  State Khulna  Violation Type Arrest/Detainment  Target Journalist

In the early hours of August 1, the police arrested Abdul Latif Morol, a local correspondent for Bangla-language Daily Probaha in the coastal town of Dumaria, about 200 km south of capital Dhaka. The police were acting on a criminal complaint lodged by Subroto Faujdar, the Dumaria correspondent with a rival newspaper Daily Spandan, and a supporter of the ruling party. The complaint alleged that Morol’s Facebook post amounted to defaming Minister for Fisheries and Livestock, Narayan Chandra Chanda. Two days earlier, on July 30, the Minister was officiating at an event organised by the government’s local livestock department in Dumaria, during which livestock – goats, chickens and ducks – was donated to poor farmers. Local newspapers reports that one of the donated goats died soon thereafter, prompted Morol to post on Facebook “Goat given by state minister in the morning dies in the evening.”