Editorial
Journalists under attack
The ruling party must rein in their goons
We condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent dastardly attack on journalists in Chuadanga reportedly by gangsters belonging to the ruling party.
In this instance not only were the houses of the journalists of several Bangla dailies set upon and ransacked and their family members threatened with dire consequences -- some of whom barely escaped with their lives --, business establishments of some of the journalists were also set on fire; and by the time the police arrived the gangsters had left after creating enough panic and destruction.
The cause of the attack is because the newspapers had exposed the alleged misdeeds of the local AL MP and his brother who happens to be the Mayor of Chuadanga. And these mobsters have not remained satisfied with merely carrying out the assault; they have also instituted cases of extortion and defamation against the journalists. The people and the media in Chuadanga have become hostages to the cadres of the local MP and mayor.
Apparently, nothing has changed from the past except the perpetrators' political identity. This incident, regrettably, resembles the hostility displayed towards the media and is replication of the violence perpetrated on the journalists during the 4-party Alliance regime by the then ruling party members and their cadres.
We feel constrained to remind the government that its much vaunted promise of change is almost coming to naught. The more the government talks about change the more the things remain the same.
We fail to see why the planned intimidation to gag the press when the journalists were merely performing their duty to keep the people informed on issues that intimately concern the public. Is this the example of tolerance for free speech that the country expects from members of a party that has assumed the charge of the nation with a whooping majority? If anyone feels aggrieved by the reports, and these had appeared in more than one newspaper, then certainly there are other civilised means of seeking redress.
No state can countenance what we have witnessed recently in Chuadanga much less endure for long without having the social values seriously damaged. And no government that depends on the goodwill of the people and the media can allow these incidents to go unheeded.
Any government that seeks to establish the rule of law and good governance must take these reports objectively and act upon these instead of tolerating the hostile acts of its cadres to bully the press. Those who try to terrorize the media must be brought to book otherwise the government will stand to lose the goodwill of both the people and the press.
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