Journalists, editors and owners of media outlets in Bangladesh on Saturday demanded that authorities protect them after recent attacks on two leading national dailies by mobs, according to Associated Press reporting.
The two newspapers targeted were the Daily Star and Prothom Alo, both based in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. Organizers said the media industry in the country is being systematically targeted amid an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
AP reported that in December, angry mobs stormed the offices of the two newspapers and set fire to the buildings, trapping journalists and other staff inside shortly after the death of a prominent Islamist activist. The newspaper authorities blamed interim government authorities for failing to adequately respond despite repeated requests for help to disperse the mobs.
Hours after the attacks, journalists who took shelter on the roof of the Daily Star were rescued, AP said. The report said the buildings were looted, and that a leader of the Editors Council was manhandled by the attackers when he arrived at the scene.
On the same day, AP also said liberal cultural centers were attacked in Dhaka. It was not clear, AP reported, why protesters attacked the newspapers, although protests had been organized in recent months outside the offices of the dailies by Islamists who accused the newspapers of links with India.
Saturday’s response included a joint conference organized by the Editors Council and the Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh. Editors, journalist union leaders and journalists from across the country demanded that authorities uphold the free press amid rising tensions ahead of elections in February.
Nurul Kabir, president of the Editors Council and editor of the English-language New Age daily, said attempts to silence media and democratic institutions reflect a dangerous pattern and urged unity among journalists. Speaking at the conference, he said, “Those who want to suppress institutions that act as vehicles of democratic aspirations are doing so through laws, force and intimidation.”
AP also cited statements by United Nations expert Irene Khan made after the December attacks, saying mob attacks on leading media outlets and cultural centers in Bangladesh were deeply alarming and must be investigated promptly and effectively. Khan warned, “The weaponization of public anger against journalists and artists is dangerous at any time, and especially now as the country prepares for elections,” adding that it could chill media freedom, minority voices and dissenting views with serious consequences for democracy.
Yunus came to power after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising in August 2024, AP reported. The report also said global human rights groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have blamed the Yunus-led government for failing to uphold human and other civil rights, and that it has been blamed for the rise of radicals and Islamists.