29 May 2007

Alert

CJFE protests charges against journalist as new hearing date set


Incident details

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury

journalist(s)

charged
(CJFE/IFEX) - The following is a 25 May 2007 CJFE letter to the Acting High Commissioner for Bangladesh in Canada:

Syed Masud Mahmood Khundoker, Acting High Commissioner
High Commission for Bangladesh
275 Bank Street, Suite 302
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 2L6

May 25, 2007

Excellency,

I am writing on behalf of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect press freedom and freedom of expression around the world, to protest the charges faced by Mr. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury.

Mr. Choudhury currently faces charges of sedition, treason, blasphemy, and espionage, with death penalty consequences. These charges were laid after Mr. Choudhury wrote about inter-faith relations in his newspaper, The Weekly Blitz, and he attempted to attend a writers' conference in Israel. The next hearing of his case is scheduled to take place on June 28, 2007.

Over the past few years, Mr. Choudhury has endured harsh reprisals for his journalistic work. His opponents have repeatedly and severely beaten him and ransacked and bombed his office. Following an attempt to attend a writers' conference in Israel in November 2003, he was arrested, blindfolded, beaten, and questioned. He was then placed in solitary confinement for 17 months, where he was denied medical attention for his glaucoma.

CJFE celebrates the good news that on May 23, a Dhaka court dropped sedition charges against seven journalists, as a step in the right direction for free expression in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, Mr. Choudhury still faces false sedition, treason and blasphemy charges.

CJFE opposes the charges that Mr. Choudhury continues to face, which punish him for expressing himself freely and also contribute to a chill on press freedom in Bangladesh. CJFE calls on the Bangladeshi government to fulfil its commitment to protecting press freedom and to ensure that justice is done. CJFE hopes to see the charges against Mr. Choudhury dropped and that he is able to work in freedom and safety in the future.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours Sincerely,

Arnold Amber, CJFE President



Source:

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
PO Box 407
555 Richmond St. W., Suite 1101
Toronto, ON M5V 3B1
Canada
cjfe @ cjfe.org
Phone: +1 416 515 9622
Fax: +1 416 515 7879
 

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More on this case

Controversial journalist attacked in office raid 10 October 2006 RSF condemns authorities' failure to respond to death threats prior to bombing of independent weekly 12 July 2006 Authorities proceed in sedition case against journalist 23 February 2005

Bangladesh

Ruling party MP assaults TV reporter 4 January 2012 Editor released on bail 28 November 2011 Newspaper editor freed after three months, immediately re-arrested 4 November 2011 Editor granted bail after three months in detention 31 October 2011 Media freedom threatened by wave of violence and harassment 4 October 2011 See all alerts: Bangladesh


 
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