Editorial
Outrageous behaviour
Perpetrators must be brought to book
The other day two senior reporters, Siddiqur Rahman of the New Age and Musharraf Hossain of Janakantha were beaten up at the office of the Chairman of the Technical Education Board. They would not only be subjected to hamhanded treatment but also held captive at the room allocated for the guards until some journalists, then on duty at the Election Commission, came to their rescue with timely help from the Rapid Action Battalion and the police thrown in. What was the journalists' fault? They had merely suggested the chairman send a written rejoinder to a report published in Janakantha on allegations of corruption against his office. The Chairman of the Board along with its Secretary had earlier phoned the Janakantha reporter to come to their office 'to discuss' the report. So it appears to be a trap laid. It is learnt that the Chairman of the Board had already been served with a show-cause notice by the ministry for allocating some centres for the ongoing HSC examinations in an act of favouritism. Earlier a report was published in the daily Janakantha for his alleged corrupt practices during the past regime that also contained a statement of the chairman. We find this incident of bashing journalists while engaged in discharge of their professional obligations highly outrageous and condemnable. Only the other day a concerned international agency in its report has listed Bangladesh as one of the seven countries of Asia where journalists have to often work under threatening circumstances that impinged on the freedom of press. In not too distant a past, a number of working journalists were killed by terrorists and hired goons of influential people and now it looks as though some senior government officials too have joined the ranks in beating and bashing journalists. We most sincerely urge the administration to thoroughly investigate the incident and punish those found guilty. We want to see the end of such maltreatment to journalists.
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