Bangladesh, Dhaka
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17
May
2017
Journalists
The government of Bangladesh instructed all its missions abroad to monitor activities of all traveling Bangladeshi journalists. On May 17, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry directed all its missions to monitor the activities of the Bangladeshi journalists traveling abroad and find out whether they are involved in any anti-state activities. The ministry instructed all its missions to take the matter seriously. The instruction reportedly came in the wake of visit of some Bangladeshi journalists’ to Pakistan on invitation of Pakistan government.
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1
May
2017
Ahmed Razu
Ahmed Razu, the executive editor of natunsomoy.com, was arrested on May 1 from his office under the Section 57 of the ICT Act. He was arrested following a couple of police complaints by a private business enterprise, the Walton Group, accusing him of tarnishing the company’s image by deliberately publishing fabricated news. Natun Somoy has published a number of news articles which criticised the after-sales service of the Walton Group, particularly regarding their phone and motorcycles. Razu was formerly a journalist with the Walton Group-owned newspaper. The court remanded him to one-day custody in two cases filed by the Walton Group and released him on bail granted by the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court on May 3. The company has filed a case for falsifying two news reports, and an extortion case. Razu alleged that the company filed the cases harass him, and their allegations were fabricated.
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26
Jan
2017
Abdul Alim and Ishan Bin Didar
Cameraperson Abdul Alim and reporter Ishan Bin Didar of private TV station ATN News, were brutally beaten by a group of policemen inside the Shahbagh Police Station in Dhaka while they were covering the shutdown enforced by the demonstrators protesting the construction of a power plant. Alim needed three stitches on his right eyebrows as a result of the beating.