E A M Asaduzzaman Tipu: Every year, World Press Freedom Day is celebrated on May 3 to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.
This year also, this significant day was celebrated all over the world, including Bangladesh, on May 3. The focus of this year’s World Press Freedom Day centred around “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis.”
This writer, a Nilphamari reporter of a prominent national English daily, recalls his sufferings that he endured during the military-backed caretaker regime led by the then Army chief Moeen U Ahmed in 2007.
Reports published at The Daily Star and statements issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the US Department have depicted the ordeal that this writer went through during the emergency period. A part of them is being reproduced here; otherwise none can realise the horrible situation of that period.
Before that, he expresses his gratitude to the Editor and colleagues of The Daily Star as well as the journalists of the country, especially of Nilphamari and Satkhira districts, for standing firmly beside him during his bad days. He takes this opportunity to express his indebtedness to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and the US Department of State for issuing valuable statements in favour of him and vehemently condemning the events of 1/11. Here is a report published at The Daily Star on March 24, 2007:
Arrested Star reporter hospitalised
Newsmen demand his release before Independence Day
Star Report
The Daily Star’s Nilphamari correspondent Asaduzzaman Tipu was rushed to jail hospital yesterday as he fell ill in captivity.
He has long been suffering from chronic asthma, family sources said.
Jailer Ismail Hossain admitted that Tipu has been hospitalised.
Brother of Liberation War martyr Captain Bashar, Tipu was picked up from his house Wednesday ( on 21 March, 2007) in connection with a ‘fabricated’ report on fertiliser crisis in Nilphamari district.
Meanwhile, the local journalists continued boycotting news of Deputy Commissioner Khandakar Mokhlesur Rahman in protest at the arrest of the Star correspondent in a false case.
They demanded yesterday that the authorities release Tipu before the Independence Day, otherwise they would go for even tougher programme.
They also called for immediate appointment of a fertiliser dealer for Nilphamari and action against those responsible for fertiliser crisis.
The journalist community of Satkhira in a statement yesterday expressed concern over the arrest incident. They urged the caretaker government to take steps for release of Tipu.
In February 2008, the CPJ issued a statement in a document titled: “Attacks on the Press in 2007 – Bangladesh.”
“Journalists working outside the capital, Dhaka, were even more vulnerable to threats and harassment by members of the local administration and security forces. Daily Star reporter E. A. M. Asaduzzaman Tipu was arrested on March 21 in the northern district of Nilphamari after reporting on the local government’s handling of fertilizer distribution in the area. He was detained for nearly a week on false accusations of extortion.”
The CPJ published this story datelined New York on March 26, 2007:
The Committee to Protect Journalists called for the immediate release of Daily Star reporter E.A.M. Asaduzzaman Tipu, who was jailed in the northern Bangladesh district of Nilphamari on Wednesday. The correspondent suffered a severe asthma attack two days after being arrested for his reporting on official mismanagement, the Dhaka-based daily reported.
“It seems clear that our colleague Asaduzzaman Tipu has been arrested in retribution for his critical reporting about local officials,” said CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon. “We are concerned about his health and call for his immediate release.”
Local police told reporters that Tipu had been arrested following allegations by a local fertilizer dealer that the correspondent had made “unethical demands.” The dealer, Biswajit Bhoumik Bapi, later denied making the accusation. “I filed no such case,” Bapi told reporters, according to The Daily Star.
In an editorial on Thursday, the newspaper accused the district administration of targeting the journalist for his critical reporting of the local government’s handling of fertilizer distribution in the area. Tipu had written in a March 17 Daily Star report that a “crisis” had emerged because “no specific criterion is maintained by authorities in appointing fertilizer dealers.”
In protest of their colleague’s arrest, local journalists have stopped printing positive news about local Deputy Commissioner Khandakar Mokhlesur Rahman. Tipu remained jailed despite hopes that he would be released before Bangladeshi Independence Day today, Daily Star staff reporter Rashed Hasan told CPJ.
“We don’t know why he wasn’t granted bail,” Hasan said. Under Bangladeshi court procedures, formal charges are lodged later in the process.
On March 11, 2008, the US Department of State published the Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Bangladesh-2007. In the report, it revealed a sorry state of Freedom of Speech and Press in Bangladesh:
On March 21, 2007, Joint Forces arrested E.A.M. Asaduzzaman Tipu, the Daily Star’s Nilphamari correspondent after he reported on fertilizer shortages. Police said a case had been filed against him by local BNP leader Biswajit Bhoumik Bapi; however, he denied filing such a case, and on April 26, the court acquitted Tipu of all charges.
In the meantime, a number of incidents occurred in past few years in Bangladesh. According to International Press Institute (IPI)’s monitoring data from October 2022 to March 2023, journalists in Bangladesh continue to work in a hostile and dangerous environment, frequently facing physical attacks and threats, as well as judicial and legal harassment. During this six-month duration, IPI recorded at least 42 press freedom threats or violations, half of which were reported cases of physical, verbal, or online attacks on journalists. The trend should be reversed.
The writer was a Nilphamari reporter of The Daily Star. E-mail: asaduzzamannil@gmail.com
