edited by Alastair Carthew and Simon Winkelmann
Bangladesh’s first Supreme Court imposed contempt of court charge against an opposition supporting newspaper editor; closure of the newspaper, Amar Desh; the unblocking of a Facebook over a blasphemy row and the opening of a one-stop-shop Bangladesh Free Media Centre featured strongly in the second half of 2010.Mahmudur Rahman, acting editor of the Amar Desh newspaper, which is closely associated with the opposition Bangladesh National Party, was sentenced to six months prison in August after being in pre-trial detention for a month on a range of charges following a raid on the newspaper. He was charged with fraud and obstructing police business. The original offending article in April angered judges by accusing them of granting injunctions requested by the government.
A staff reporter and the publisher were both fined and jailed for seven days because they could not pay their fines and five journalists were ordered to present themselves for trial on a charge of obstructing justice for resisting the raid. Amar Desh was shuttered for publishing without a licence, but this was challenged and the order stayed by the Dhaka High Court, which also forbad any form of torture of Mr. Rahman. The newspaper resumed publishing. Rahman was also accused of plotting against the government in 2006.
The Facebook controversy stemmed from publication of cartoons of Mohammed and some Bangladeshi politicians considered offensive. The blockage was lifted on 31 May. A similar shutdown for a longer period occurred in Pakistan. Bangladeshi authorities emphasized the closure was a temporary measure. It followed large street demonstrations by thousands of people demanding Facebook’s closure.
But it was not all negative media news. In June the Vienna based International Press Institute, a global organizations dedicated to press freedom, opened the Bangladesh Free Media Centre, aimed at creating a press freedom “one-stop-shop” offering strong support for the defence and strengthening of press freedom. As shown in the Amar Desh case, Bangladeshi media take a firm stand supporting one or other of the two main political parties, so media independence where media organisations are subject to external pressures, is hard to find.
Investigative reporting in broadcasting is almost unknown. There is no government sanctioned system guaranteeing regulation of the airwaves and independent allocation of broadcasting licences. Consequently, there is little critical examination of government policies by broadcasters. Newspapers do conduct investigations, but they, also, are subject to external influences which may affect important aspects of their business, such as access to advertising.
In another positive move ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh in collaborations with the Information Commission of Bangladesh conducted the first ever training of public officials responsible for providing information under the 2009 Right to Information Act. ARTICLE 19 is a human rights organisation with a specific mandate and focus on the defence and promotion of freedom of expression and freedom of information worldwide.
Bangladesh has 995,000 Facebook users, or 0.6% of penetration of the total population. It does not make the top 10 of Twitter users. The country is 121st on Asia on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index (2009).