Dainik Dinkal, a Bengali-language newspaper run by Bangladesh’s main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has stopped publishing, with the country’s Press Council upholding a suspension order issued by the government in December last year, news agency AFP reported. The over three-decades-old broadsheet had been a voice of the BNP, and employed hundreds of journalists and other workers. Several journalists staged a protest demonstration in Dhaka against the order.
Quoting the newspaper, the AFP report said the Dhaka district authorities ordered the shutdown of Dainik Dinkal on December 26, but the newspaper did not stop publishing as it lodged an appeal at the Press Council, which is headed by a senior high court judge.
“The council rejected our appeal yesterday (Sunday), upholding the district magistrate’s order to stop our publication,” managing editor Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas was quoted as saying in the report.
According to AFP, the order said the newspaper’s printing permit was cancelled because it “violated the country’s printing and publication laws”. Publisher Tarique Rahman, the acting chief of BNP who is a “convicted criminal”, is living abroad without handing over the job to another person, the council was quoted as saying.
Biswas, however, told AFP that Rahman had submitted his resignation after moving to London and appointed someone else in his place, but the Dhaka authorities did not accept the changes.
While the Bangladesh government is yet to comment on the shutdown of the paper, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir issued a statement condemning the Press Council judgment. He also demanded an immediate withdrawal of the district administration’s order.
Biswas, meanwhile, told local daily New Age that Dainik Dinkal would soon take all steps needed to resume publication.
‘Repression Of Opposition Voices’
With the mainstream newspapers in Bangladesh mostly controlled by pro-government business houses, the suspension of Dainik Dinkal has stoked fears about media freedom in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has often been accused of authoritarianism and efforts to silence criticism.
“This shutdown (of Dainik Dinkal) is all part of the government crackdown on dissenting voices and freedom of speech,” Biswas told AFP.
In a joint statement, two journalist unions also said the decision was a “reflection of the repression of opposition voices”.
Media in Bangladesh is not known to enjoy absolute freedom. In the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, which is compiled by the Reporters Without Borders, Bangladesh was ranked 162, behind even Russia (155) and Afghanistan (156).
The Sheikh Hasina government last month ordered the closure of 191 websites for publishing what it called “anti-state news”. Previously, it had blocked websites several times, especially ahead of the December 2018 national elections.
Since 2018, hundreds of people have been arrested under the Digital Security Act.