The Overseas Correspondents Association Bangladesh (OCAB), a Dhaka-based platform of journalists representing international media, on Tuesday voiced concern over the barring of journalist Nazrul Islam from travelling to China at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Sunday.
Nazrul Islam represents the German news agency DPA and heads OCAB as incumbent President.
OCAB unanimously condemned the development, saying that such a travel ban without showing any valid reason by the security and immigration officials is unwanted, unexpected and a clear violation of basic rights to travel, and an attempt to inject fear and confusion in the minds of the journalists, said a press release issued on Tuesday.
This is also regrettable that the incident took place on the day of the World Press Freedom Day on Sunday when it was being observed in Bangladesh and beyond with a promise to uphold the spirit of press freedom.
Just one day before marking the World Press Freedom Day, OCAB in a statement signed by its General Secretary Julhas Alam, urged the government and all political stakeholders to guarantee the physical safety of journalists and ensure swift accountability for attacks, to release all journalists detained arbitrarily and held without formal charge and to withdraw charges filed against hundreds of journalists that many international monitors have deemed disproportionate, to reform or repeal laws that restrict freedom of expression and independent journalism and to promote media literacy, support independent fact-checking initiatives, and strengthen security measures for media professionals against cyber threats.
From Nazrul Islam’s personal social media account, it is known that OCAB President collected his boarding pass for a scheduled trip to China on May 3 when immigration police called him aside and questioned him about his profession and the role he played as the association’s President, it said.
He was eventually told that he would not be allowed to travel to China because of no-clearance from “security agencies.”
In a Facebook post, Nazrul Islam said that immigration officials did not show any valid reasons for preventing him from travelling.
OCAB called on the government to immediately clarify the incident and stop such unlawful moves and other repressive acts that undermine the rights of journalists.