A woman rescues books from a store close to the Prothom Alo every day newspaper which was set on hearth by protesters after information reached the nation from Singapore of the loss of life of a distinguished activist Sharif Osman Hadi, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Dec. 19, 2025. AP-Yonhap
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Journalists, editors and house owners of media retailers in Bangladesh demanded Saturday that authorities shield them following current assaults on two main nationwide dailies by mobs.
They stated the media trade within the South Asian nation is being systematically focused within the interim authorities headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus. They stated the administration failed to stop assaults on the Every day Star, the nation’s main English-language every day, and the Prothom Alo, the biggest Bengali-language newspaper, each primarily based in Dhaka, the capital.
In December, offended mobs stormed the places of work of the 2 newspapers and set hearth to the buildings, trapping journalists and different employees inside, shortly after the loss of life of a distinguished Islamist activist.
The newspapers blamed the authorities underneath the interim authorities for failing to adequately reply to the incidents regardless of repeated requests for assist to disperse the mobs. Hours later, the trapped journalists who took shelter on the roof of the Every day Star newspaper had been rescued. The buildings had been looted. A pacesetter of the Editors Council, an impartial physique of newspaper editors, was manhandled by the attackers when he arrived on the scene.
On the identical day, liberal cultural facilities had been additionally attacked in Dhaka.
It was not clear why the protesters attacked the newspapers, whose editors are identified to be intently linked with Yunus. Protests had been organized in current months exterior the places of work of the dailies by Islamists who accused the newspapers of hyperlinks with India.
On Saturday, the Editors Council and the Newspapers House owners Affiliation of Bangladesh collectively organized a convention the place editors, journalist union leaders and journalists from throughout the nation demanded that the authorities uphold the free press amid rising tensions forward of elections in February.
Nurul Kabir, president of the Editors Council, stated makes an attempt to silence media and democratic establishments replicate a harmful sample.
Kabir, additionally the editor of the English-language New Age every day, stated unity amongst journalists must be upheld to combat such a pattern.
“Those that need to suppress establishments that act as autos of democratic aspirations are doing so by way of legal guidelines, drive and intimidation,” he stated.
After the assaults on the 2 dailies in December, an knowledgeable on the United Nations stated that mob assaults on main media retailers and cultural facilities in Bangladesh had been deeply alarming and have to be investigated promptly and successfully.
“The weaponization of public anger in opposition to journalists and artists is harmful at any time, and particularly now because the nation prepares for elections. It may have a chilling impact on media freedom, minority voices and dissenting views with severe penalties for democracy,” Irene Khan stated in a press release.
Yunus got here to energy after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled the nation amid a mass rebellion in August 2024. Yunus had promised stability within the nation, however world human rights teams together with Human Rights Watch and Amnesty Worldwide have blamed the federal government for its failure to uphold human and different civil rights. The Yunus-led regime has additionally been blamed for the rise of the radicals and Islamists.
Dozens of journalists are dealing with homicide fees linked to the rebellion on the grounds that they inspired the federal government of Hasina to make use of deadly weapons in opposition to the protesters. A number of journalists who’re identified to have shut hyperlinks with Hasina have been arrested and jailed underneath Yunus.
