CPJ urges BD govt to drop charges against journalists over corruption reporting

NEW DELHI: Bangladeshi authorities should drop all charges filed against six journalists from the daily Agrajatra Pratidin who have been criminalized for their public-interest reporting on political corruption, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

Police have charged the journalists under the Cyber Security Act 2026, as well as with criminal defamation, extortion, and criminal intimidation, according to a copy of the police case file reviewed by CPJ.

The criminal complaint, filed by Bogura Press Club Treasurer Tanvir Alam Rimon, stems from the newspaper’s reporting on alleged corruption committed by state Minister for Local Government Mir Shahe Alam. It accuses the journalists of false and defamatory reporting and alleges that the newspaper’s acting editor, Md. Rezanur Islam, tried to extort 2 million taka (USD16,400) from Rimon and Alam.

Police from Bogura district arrested Islam on June 18, and he was held in prison until he was granted bail on June 21. Police have said that efforts to arrest the other journalists named in the complaint — publisher and editor Mehedi Hasan, news editor Ashraf Ali Faruqi, reporter Saleh Kaisar, and two Bogura correspondents — are ongoing.