CPJ calls for protection of journalists in Bangladesh ahead of UN human rights review

Bangladesh authorities are increasingly attempting to silence the media through arbitrary detention, legal harassment, and censorship, according to a joint submission to the United Nations by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and Asian Legal Resource Centre.

The submission, sent for the 44th session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group scheduled for November, documents impunity in cases of killings and abductions of journalists, violence against members of the press in custody, and the death of writer Mushtaq Ahmed in jail in February 2021. It also highlights instances of arbitrary detention, harassment, and violence against family members of critical exiled journalists.