The journalists of Kushtia convened a convention with participation of central leaders of BFJU, to protest against harassment of four journalists by the ruling BNP lawmaker Shahidul Islam. According to reports, two BNP lawmakers of Kushtia allegedly provided cadres to carry out the attack on the journalists in a bid to foil the convention. The cadres occupied the convention stage and stet fire to it after mercilessly beating up the journalists' leaders on the stage.

The cadres of the BNP lawmaker also launched an attack on the press of the daily "Andoloner Bazar" stopping publication of the newspaper in Kushtia. They broke the plates and tore the tracing of the newspaper. Following the incident the daily "Andoloner Bazar" could be published. BNP lawmaker Shahidul Islam became enraged after serial reports on him were published in the national and local dailies. He also threatened to shut down "Andolner Bazar" and oust the journalists from Kushtia if they did not refrain from publishing news against him.

This was one of a series of such attacks that have recently been resorted to by the BNP lawmakers. The cadres of BNP lawmaker Manjurul Ahsan Munshi forcibly foiled a journalist's seminar on April 13, organised by the Debidwar Press Club in Comilla district, and also beat up the journalists. The BNP leaders in Rajshahi invited the journalists for a discussion and then pounced on them physically for the reports they had made earlier. This speaks of the same old story of the journalists being persecuted by the ruling BNP leaders.

What we see in different parts of the country is that the journalists who are exposing the misdeeds of the local ruling party lawmakers, are being made victims of barbarous violence by their cadres or are being forced to flee. Unfortunately, often in the end it is not the criminal but the informer of the truth who ends up being on the receiving end. When journalists are falling victims in an increasing number during this regime, at least 14 journalists have been killed. The number of injured journalists is by no means small with innumerable cases of bashing. And all this has happened because they were carrying out the duty of informing the people.

The ministers and some of the ruling BNP lawmakers launched an abhorrent attack on the country's media in parliament on November 22, accusing it of tarnishing the government's image by publishing what they called "fake news," and also demanded actions against those responsible. The president, prime minister and information minister also expressed their willingness to amend the provision of the Press Council Act adding a punitive provision to punish errant journalists.

A pertinent question that arises in this context is, why are the high-ups in the ruling alliance are so angry at the media and why have the journalists have become their whipping boys? According to a study, the recent trend of physical attacks and violence against journalists is linked to the media's commendable role in exposing corruption and abuse of power by the ruling alliance and the persons in the corridors of power.

Bangladesh has been ranked 151st among 167 countries in the global press freedom index 2005, by a Paris-based global media watchdog "Reporters Without Borders." The position of Bangladesh is at the bottom in South Asia, worse than India, ranking 106th, and Pakistan, ranked 150th, in the press freedom index. Even the poor African country Chad, that shared the corruption championship with Bangladesh last year by the Transparency International, was ranked 109th in the index.

The leading members of the BNP emphatically say that press freedom today in Bangladesh is greater than at any other time in the past. We think the moment is here once again to write about the myth, as press freedom still remains a remote reality in Bangladesh. It is no wonder that several international organizations of journalists have designated Bangladesh as the most dangerous working place in the world for journalists.

The press in Bangladesh is claimed to be free because of the absence of censorship or harsh laws to throttle free expression. This is myth and not the reality. The issue that needs to be highlighted once again is that the press in Bangladesh is imprisoned in the claws of the high-ups of the ruling alliance, there is no law to prohibit repression of the press. The open hostile attitude of the ruling high-ups towards journalists, basically, has encouraged their lawmakers to assume that they can repress journalists with impunity. Press freedom is thus incompatible with increasing persecution, intimidation and killing of journalists.

Even the judiciary has disregard for press freedom. Courts never hesitate to issue warrants against journalists in defamation suits filed by the high-ups of the ruling alliance, no matter that the reports are based on truth. The High Court on its own, charged journalists with contempt of court for carrying reports on the counterfeiting of LLB certificate by one of its judges. Such developments are not conducive to the working of a free press. A minister of the then prime minister Lee Kwan Yew's cabinet in Singapore committed suicide when some financial irregularities involving him appeared in the newspaper. And this is the fundamental difference between them and us.

No conscious citizen of the country can take lightly the BNP lawmakers reign of terror against journalists in Kushtia, while remembering the police atrocities on journalists in Chittagong on April-16.This is not the first time that such an event has taken place but it is one of a series of such events. Strangely enough, the government overlooked all these events over the last four and a half years. Unrestrained attacks and violence against the journalists have darkened the meager freedom of press they enjoy in Bangladesh.

The journalists have been playing a very vital role in their mission of unearthing all falsehood in the dire circumstances the nation happens to be going through. They consistently tried to draw the attention of the government to the gathering strength of Islamic extremists in the country. The journalists have kept our hopes alive by bringing to light the tales of torture, denial and violation of human rights. The journalists seem to be at the receiving end of despicable attacks masterminded by the high-ups of the ruling alliance. The prevailing situation now calls for the journalists to develop a sense of unity among themselves to resist the onslaught on their professionalism and dignity.

ANM Nurul Haque is banker.