Dhaka:
In Bangladesh, protesters surrounded the offices of Prothom Alo, one of the few independent newspapers, on Monday in the latest large-scale demonstration to demand the closure of critical media outlets.
Government security forces guarding the building brought back an angry crowd of about 300 people, a day after a barrage of tear gas canisters forced back protesters who had tried to storm the office.
The country’s largest Bengali-language newspaper faced significant challenges under the previous government of ousted dictator Sheikh Hasina, who fled to neighboring India in a student-led revolution on August 5.
However, protesters on Monday accused the newspaper’s reporters of supporting Hasina, a charge strongly denied by Prothom Alo editor-in-chief Sajjad Sharif.
“We have consistently held ourselves to the highest professional standards in our work and will continue to do so,” he told AFP, recalling a decades-long history of “standing against harassment.”
Hasina’s overthrow has sparked a wave of protests in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including a surge in Islamist groups emboldened to take to the streets after years of repression.
Protesters loudly accused the paper of having an “anti-Muslim” and “pro-India” bias, and many demanded its immediate closure.
Protesters also targeted newspaper offices in the city of Rajshahi and marched through the streets of the port city of Chittagong on the outskirts of Dhaka.
This follows protests earlier this month targeting the English-language Daily Star in Dhaka.
Protester Arif bin Rabib Shuvo, 20, who was injured during anti-Hasina protests in July, claimed that both Prothom Alo and the Daily Star were trying to “destabilize” Bangladesh.
Another protester, Mir Farhad, 35, said: “If they don’t change their current strategy, they should be closed down.”
Interim leader Muhammad Yunus has repeatedly said he wants media freedom.
Media watchdog groups say dozens of journalists seen by critics as supporting Hasina when she was in power have come under police investigation in apparent retaliation for their past work. It says that there are.
At least four people have been detained on suspicion of inciting the killing of protesters in the days before Hasina’s ouster.
Reporters Without Borders said 140 journalists were being investigated by police for incidents of violence, calling it “systematic judicial harassment.”
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists called for reforms this month to guarantee press freedom at “this critical juncture in our nation’s history.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
