The lack of progress in the investigations involving the killings of journalists in Bangladesh highlights an “appalling and pervasive culture of impunity” in the country, the United Nations’ human rights monitors said, urging authorities to “conduct thorough, independent and effective investigations”. At least 15 journalists were killed in the last decade.

“When crimes against journalists go unpunished, they embolden the perpetrators and encourage more attacks, threats, and killings with the intention of intimidating the media into silence. We see those deeply worrying signs in Bangladesh,” five UN Special Rapporteurs said in a statement on Friday. 

The statement also highlighted that the country’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite paramilitary force, failed to produce findings in the 2012 killings of two journalists, Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, despite being asked 84 times by the High Court in the last 10 years. The journalist couple was brutally stabbed in their house in Dhaka in 2012. 

The statement also said it is an "unfortunate reality" that journalists, human rights defenders, and members of civil society in Bangladesh carry “the risk of being attacked, intimidated, or killed with impunity.” 

“We urge the government to conduct and complete prompt, thorough, independent, and effective investigations and bring perpetrators to justice for the murder of Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi and other killings of journalists and human rights defenders in Bangladesh,” reads the statement.  

Special Rapporteurs also added that they have received numerous reports of journalists, activists, and members of civil society groups being arbitrarily detained, attacked, abducted, threatened, and subjected to judicial harassment.  

Last year, Mushtaq Ahmed, a dissident writer, died after spending nine months in pre-trial detention under the notorious Digital Security Act (DSA). His family members alleged that he had been brutally tortured in prison. 

Rights activists have repeatedly called for repealing the DSA, which they say, is mostly used for muzzling free speech, dissent, government criticism, on online media. Most detainees arrested under the DSA spend a long time in prison before they could go for trial. 

(SAM)