New York, July 16 (IANS) Several leading press freedom and human rights organisations have called on the Bangladesh government to end the persecution of journalists in the country, while urging the authorities to ensure that media professionals Farzana Rupa and Mozammel Babu are not criminally prosecuted, particularly on charges of crimes against humanity, for carrying out their journalistic work.

In a joint statement, the organisations also raised concerns over the ongoing pre-trial detention of Rupa, Babu, and two other journalists, Shakil Ahmed and Shyamal Dutta, in other cases connected to the 2024 mass protests that ousted the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government.

Bangladesh’s International Crime Tribunal on May 14 showed journalists Rupa and Babu, along with former minister Dipu Moni, arrested in a case linked to alleged crimes against humanity during the 2013 crackdown on the Hefazat-e-Islam rally at Shapla Chattar in Dhaka.

The signatories said that since then, the lawyers representing Rupa and Babu had not been provided with any evidence or a chargesheet.

They noted that the prosecution had indicated that the case was based on broadcast coverage of the 2013 events, including a current affairs programme presented by Rupa that allegedly “spread misleading information” about casualty figures and contributed to “crimes against humanity”.

“A fundamental aspect of the right to freedom of expression is the protection of journalistic work, including reporting and editorial decisions on matters of significant public interest, especially where events are politically contested or disputed. Decisions about how to cover a contested political incident should not be criminalised, let alone prosecuted as crimes against humanity,” read the statement.

“The suggestion that such conduct could amount to an international crime is wrong as a matter of law. The decision to initiate proceedings without a legal foundation creates a chilling effect on journalists and media outlets in Bangladesh,” it added.

The organisations noted that Rupa and Babu, alongside Rupa’s husband and fellow Ekattor TV journalist Shakil Ahmed, and Shyamal Dutta, Editor of the newspaper Bhorer Kagoj, have been held in pre-trial detention since August and September 2024 in connection with numerous murder cases arising from deaths during the July–August 2024 demonstrations.

“No charge sheet has been served in any of those cases and there has been no explanation as to how journalists’ reporting on the uprising could be characterised as the crime of murder. These are among thousands of murder cases filed against perceived supporters of the former government, many of which are based on no known evidence,” they stated.

The organisations urged the Bangladesh government to immediately release journalists detained solely for peacefully exercising their human rights and carrying out their reporting. They also called the authorities to drop “politically motivated charges” related to their journalistic work and to end the practice of filing multiple cases and mass First Information Reports (FIRs) against journalists and others across the country.

–IANS

scor/as