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Condemning the recent attacks on media outlets and intimidation of journalists in various ways, politicians on Thursday demanded a strong role from the interim government to ensure freedom of the media.

The demand came at an exchange-of-views meeting with politicians organised by the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh at a hotel in Dhaka city.

‘Our fight is for establishing freedom of speech. We will make every effort to protect freedom of press, freedom of people, and freedom of vote at any cost,’ Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said while addressing the programme.

He said that today even after 53 years of independence, and mass uprising of the students, people have to talk about attacks on the media.

‘Unfortunately, today some people are trying to mislead the nation. We all need to unite and stop this. Otherwise, the goal for which our youths gave their lives, our people gave their lives, will all fail,’ he said.

He also said that since the 1971 War of Independence people had been fighting for democracy.

‘We raised a movement to create a democratic state system. But sometimes there are actions that lead to depoliticisation. We all need to consciously avoid it,’ he said.

An elected government is better than any government whatever it might be, he stressed.

‘Let democracy be practised, which has not happened in the past 53 years. Through practice we can move forward,’ he added.

He also mentioned that creating anarchy or heading towards disorder would bring nothing but disaster for the nation at this moment.

Nagarik Oikya president Mahmudur Rahman said that the country would face serious difficulties if freedom of the media could not be ensured, urging the government for its steps in this regard.

Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said that attacks on some media outlets were not isolated incidents, adding that it was actually an attack on the media on the whole.

‘The government should act effectively’ to stop attacks on the media, he said.

Jaamat-e-Ismai assistant secretary general AHM Hamidur Rahman Azad said that democracy would not flourish without a free media.

He said that media also should act responsibly to build the nation in a democratic manner.

Several Islamic party leaders urged the newspapers for coverage without discrimination. 

Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam said that the media endured massive oppression in the past 15 years.

‘We want an end to any type of oppression on the free press, but we are experiencing attacks in a new manner,’ he said, adding that politicians’ role was essential to protect the freedom of the press.

NOAB president AK Azad said that the organisation noted with deep concern that in the aftermath of the student-people mass uprising, when the media was supposed to work in a pressure-free environment, attempts and threats continued to put pressure on some media outlets. Threats of closure were also being made.

‘The kind of programme that a group has recently held and continues to campaign against The Daily Star and Prothom Alo is nothing but an intense threat to the freedom of the press,’ he said.

‘At the same time, we have seen that the editor of ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· has been harassed twice at the airport, just like in the old authoritarian era. The accreditation cards of journalists, including an editor, have been cancelled indiscriminately,’ he said.

The incidents of besieging two newspaper offices, creating chaos, and attacking their local offices and obstructing newspaper distribution in different parts of the country were in no way acceptable, he said.

He said that the atmosphere of fear that was being created at the moment was an extreme threat to the freedom of the press.

‘We expect the help and cooperation of all political parties in ensuring the freedom of the press. In this critical moment of the country, we hope that the political parties will take the necessary initiatives in this regard,’ AK Azad said.

Having reminded all that the freedom of the media was one of the greatest vehicles for an effective democracy, he urged the students, intellectuals and civil society to voice their concern and protest at the attempts at curbing press freedom.

‘It can be said that the future of our aspired democratic Bangladesh depends on the freedom of the press,’ he said.

Among others, Socialist Party of Bangladesh general secretary Bazlur Rashid Feroz, Revolutionary Workers Party general secretary Saiful Huq, AB Party member secretary Majubur Rahman Manju, Ganosamhati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki, and National Citizens’ Committee convener Nasiruddin Patwary also spoke at the programme.

From the media side, Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman, ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· publisher ASM Shahidullah Khan, its editor Nurul Kabir, and daily Jugantor editor Saiful Islam, were present, among others, at the programme moderated by daily Bonik Barta editor Dewan Hanif Mahmud.