BenarNews
In an online video of his sermons that went viral, a Muslim preacher called for journalists to be “slaughtered” in Bangladesh, where conservative ideology keeps shrinking the space for freedom of speech, a global media group said in a report this week.
The preacher and madrassa teacher, Wasik Billah Nomani, delivered the sermon in the presence of thousands of people, “repeatedly vowing to ‘slaughter’ journalists after establishing the caliphate,” the International Federation of Journalists said in its South Asia Press Freedom Report 2020-21.
The preacher, a prominent activist with the hardline Hefazat-e-Islam group, was arrested in the city of Mymensingh on April 11 for allegedly making provocative statements in his sermons, but social media is “overflowing” with Islamic lectures replete with “hate speech,” IFJ reported.
Basilio Sepe/BenarNews
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights marked World Press Freedom day on Monday by demanding that nations respect and protect the rights of journalists, even as advocacy groups urged her to give special attention to abuse of media freedom in Bangladesh.
In a statement, Michelle Bachelet noted that freedom of the press has come under particular attack during the pandemic, when the public is especially in need of information.
“The COVID-19 crisis has made it clearer that critical reporting on government policies or public figures is all too often met with prosecution,” she said. “Laws adopted or applied to restrict and criminalize disinformation during the pandemic have also been used by States to target journalists.