Pressure on bdnews24.com a grave threat to media freedom: Dhaka University Journalists Association

By | February 19, 2021

Describing the incident as a “grave threat to the freedom of the media”, DUJA President Mehedi Hasan and General Secretary Sajjadul Kabir in a statement on Friday observed bdnews24.com had published the reports following due process.

But it is facing pressure to remove those in the name of “protecting the business interests” of an influential person, the association said.

DUJA demanded an end to “such heinous action” in order to protect the interests of the media.

Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, spoke extensively at a press conference on Wednesday on “bizarre” attempts to muffle journalism by the influential people.

bdnews24.com said it had published news on court proceedings and orders in cases filed against valiant freedom fighter HBM Iqbal, chairman of Premier Group and a former MP, and members of his family in the past one and a half decades as had other mainstream media.

bdnews24.com also covered the news of acquittal of Iqbal and his family members of the charges.

But it received 36 legal notices from 24 districts as of Tuesday. The language, statements and demands in the notices, sent under different names, are identical.

The main point of the legal notices is that the reports on Iqbal and his family should be removed as all of them have been acquitted in the cases—a demand that bdnews24.com finds “illogical”, “unreasonable” and “absurd”.

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