The Overseas Correspondents Association Bangladesh (OCAB), a Dhaka-based platform of journalists representing global media, has condemned the decision of cancelling accreditation for journalists without showing any reasons in Bangladesh.  

OCAB has also demanded immediate withdrawal of the decision and return the accreditation to 167 journalists, including senior members of OCAB, as the group thinks such a move by the Press Information Department of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is contradictory to the interim government’s pledge to ensure a congenial environment for independent journalism.

Also, the government should refrain from taking any further steps to bring more journalists under such a plan to cancel accreditation, the group said.  

OCAB also strongly protested the ‘fictious’ charges of murder or attempt to murder against journalists, saying it is a sharp contrast to the commitment of upholding press freedom and an environment free from any intimidation or fear by the interim government, headed by Nobel Peace laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, said a press release.

It said any attempt to silence media is a threat to independent journalism, which will eventually derail the aspiration of the people to establish democracy in the country.

OCAB in a meeting of the Executive Committee, chaired by its President Nazrul Islam, on Saturday expressed its concern that the interim government must withdraw all fictious charges against the journalists in line with calls from global media rights groups such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA), the Reporters Without Borders, Dhaka-based Editors’ Council and other journalists’ unions to stop all kinds of harassment against journalists in Bangladesh.

It hoped that the interim government would do everything to uphold the spirit of the freedom of expression and press freedom to establish a sustainable democracy in the country.

Thanking the interim government for its decision to scrap the Cyber Security Act, OCAB hoped that any previous pattern of muzzling media will not be repeated by the interim government.