Democracy Report-2014 released by the British government from London on Thursday has criticized some of the steps of Bangladesh government saying they have generated concerns about civil society space, media freedom and government power to suppress criticism or dissent. As we see, there is no surprise that the observations in the Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report is breaking anything new for Bangladesh, except the fact that such disclosures and voicing of concerns are telling the world time and again like many others that some serious human rights lapses and derailment of the country from multi-party democratic practices are taking place in this country and it must stop. The report has sounded critical voice on Bangladesh government’s proposed revision of the foreign donations act and a new broadcast policy making known their fear that such policies would not only gag free media but also the activities of the non-government organizations (NGO) now playing a significant role as harbinger to country’s socio-economic change. Its concern to gag digital media by detaining critics under ICT Act are also eye opener to people watching development in Bangladesh from home and abroad. Specially, the government move to dry NGO funding sources in the name of monitoring source of terrorism funding is not well accepted by the British government like other European nations. We know their concerns were also conveyed to Bangladesh government by several EU delegations in their recent visits to Bangladesh.
We also share the British government call, embodied in the report, to all political parties to work together to strengthen democratic accountability and build wider confidence for future elections. Moreover, we take very positively the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s telling of ‘disappointment’ to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her visit to London last year, over the conduct of last election. The report said Bangladesh Prime Minister had agreed in that meeting on the importance of an ‘open society and political system’ which will ensure democratic political participation and media freedom. But we are appalled to see that our Prime Minister has almost forgotten that promise.
The British government’s opinion that journalists’ political affiliation is endangering the media freedom is a very timely warning when it said it is ‘disgracing to be a party follower than a journalist.’ Free media needs free journalists.
We must say reports on human rights situation and political situation in Bangladesh galore in local and global media, in addition to foreign government reports and specialized reports by global human rights organizations. It is not anything that we don’t know; it is that our government is defiant to ignore them while the solution to these problems lies in the hand of the government. We would only urge the government to pay heed to local and global concerns.
We also share the British government call, embodied in the report, to all political parties to work together to strengthen democratic accountability and build wider confidence for future elections. Moreover, we take very positively the British Prime Minister David Cameron’s telling of ‘disappointment’ to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her visit to London last year, over the conduct of last election. The report said Bangladesh Prime Minister had agreed in that meeting on the importance of an ‘open society and political system’ which will ensure democratic political participation and media freedom. But we are appalled to see that our Prime Minister has almost forgotten that promise.
The British government’s opinion that journalists’ political affiliation is endangering the media freedom is a very timely warning when it said it is ‘disgracing to be a party follower than a journalist.’ Free media needs free journalists.
We must say reports on human rights situation and political situation in Bangladesh galore in local and global media, in addition to foreign government reports and specialized reports by global human rights organizations. It is not anything that we don’t know; it is that our government is defiant to ignore them while the solution to these problems lies in the hand of the government. We would only urge the government to pay heed to local and global concerns.
