The Bengali-language every day Dainik Dinkal has been the mouthpiece of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion for greater than three a long time.
The one newspaper of Bangladesh’s most important opposition occasion has halted printing after a authorities suspension order was upheld by a watchdog, stoking fears about media freedom within the South Asian nation.
The Dainik Dinkal, a Bengali-language broadsheet, has been a mouthpiece of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) for greater than three a long time. It employs a whole bunch of journalists and press employees.
The every day covers information tales together with the frequent arrests of BNP members and what the occasion says are 1000's of faux instances in opposition to its supporters.
The newspaper on Monday stated the Dhaka district authorities had ordered the shutdown on December 26, nevertheless it continued to publish after submitting an attraction on the Press Council headed by a prime excessive court docket decide.
“The council rejected our attraction yesterday [on Sunday], upholding the district Justice of the Peace’s order to cease our publication,” stated Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, managing editor of the newspaper.
The order, a duplicate of which was obtained by the AFP information company, stated the printing allow of the newspaper was cancelled after it violated the nation’s printing and publication legal guidelines.
The council stated the paper’s writer, Tarique Rahman – the performing chief of BNP – was a convicted legal and was dwelling overseas with out handing over his job to a different individual.
Biswas stated Rahman, now primarily based in London, submitted his resignation and appointed a brand new writer, however the authorities didn't settle for the adjustments.
“This shutdown is all a part of the federal government crackdown on dissenting voices and freedom of speech,” Biswas stated.
The federal government on Monday didn't touch upon the shutdown.
Two Dhaka-based journalist unions stated in a joint assertion the choice was a “reflection of the repression of opposition voices”. Unions and journalists staged small road protests over the shutdown.
Campaigners and overseas governments, together with america, have lengthy expressed worries about efforts by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to silence criticism and what they see as creeping authoritarianism.
Final month, Hasina’s authorities ordered the closure of 191 web sites it accuses of publishing “anti-state information”, citing intelligence studies.
The Bangladesh authorities has beforehand blocked web sites a number of instances, notably in December 2018 forward of nationwide elections.
The 2022 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters With out Borders ranked Bangladesh at 162, worse than Russia (155) and Afghanistan (156).
Bangladesh’s draconian Digital Safety Act, below which a whole bunch of individuals have been arrested since 2018, has brought on explicit alarm.
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