Bangladesh: Journalists Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed must be released
The pre-trial detention of journalists Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed, who have been held for four days on charges of conspiracy and complicity in the murders of protesters during the recent uprisings, has been extended by five more days. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for their immediate release and the charges against them to be dropped. No Bangladeshi journalist should be held responsible for killing protestors due to the way they report the news.
On the evening of 26 August, Farzana Rupa and Shakil Ahmed appeared in a police court in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, exhausted by their attempt to flee the country followed by four days in pre-trial detention. The couple had both worked for the news channel Ekattor TV, Rupa as a presenter and Ahmed as news director, until their dismissal on 8 August. While Ekattor TV is a private media, it is considered sympathetic to the recently ousted government.
The hearing, which was closely followed by the Bangladeshi public, resulted in a five-day extension of Rupa and Ahmed’s provisional detention. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder as part of an extensive trial that also targets the former Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, for the murder of a protester, Mohammed Rubel, following a complaint lodged by his father at the Adabor police station in Dhaka, the capital. A few days earlier, they appeared before a judge for the murder of another protester, Fazlul Karim, in the Uttara East neighborhood of Dhaka.
In addition to these two hearings, Ahmed and Rupa, who also worked with several international media outlets, were recently added to the list of suspects in a third case involving the murder of another protester, 17-year-old Nayeem Howlader, killed in Dhaka's Jatrabari district.
"RSF is closely monitoring the Kafkaesque developments of this judicial inquiry. The charges of conspiracy to commit murder and complicity in murder against journalists are unfounded, and outrageous, tactics worthy of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. RSF calls on the interim authorities to act urgently to release these journalists and drop the charges against them. Media professionals must be protected and not bear the brunt of the public’s anger towards the former government. They must not become scapegoats for the reprehensible practices of the former regime.
Four other media professionals suspected of murder
Ahmed and Rupa were added to the list of suspects in the Howlader case on 26 August, the same day their latest hearing took place. Four other media professionals are also on this list: Mozammel Babu, editorial director of Ekattor TV; Syed Ishtiaque Reza, CEO and editor-in-chief of Global Television ; Ahmed Jobaer, CEO and managing director of private 24-hour news channel Somoy TV; and Munni Saha, former news director of ATN News.
Journalists are paying a heavy price for Bangladesh's ongoing political transition. Five have lost their lives amidst the bloody crackdown on anti-government protests initiated in early July by students.
Media professionals were already harassed under the reign of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina: between 2023 and 2024, the country fell from 163rd to 165th place out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.
