Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Deadly year for journalists as killings rose sharply in 2022
- Number of jailed journalists spikes to new global record
- Killing with impunity: Vast majority of journalists’ murderers go free
- Special report: When spyware turns phones into weapons
- Afghanistan’s media crisis
- Attacks on the press: The deadliest countries in 2021
- ‘Night and day’: The Biden administration and the press
- Number of journalists behind bars reaches global high
- Killers of journalists still get away with murder
Reporter Without Borders
OPC Calls for Bangladesh to Free Photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol
The Overseas Press Club of America calls on law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh to free jailed photojournalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol and dismiss the case against him, in addition to investigating the circumstances behind his disappearance.
Kajol, 50, was arrested May 3 after disappearing for 53 days. News media reported that Kajol was arrested while attempting to cross the border from India.
Kajol, the editor of Pakkhakal magazine, and 31 other journalists were charged with criminal defamation under the country’s Digital Security Act on March 9, according to the Dhaka Tribune.
According to journalist colleagues, Kajol shared a story from the daily Manab Zamin on his Facebook page and added the names of other government officials, which triggered the DSA filing.
Human Rights Watch and the United Nations, which led a 2018 coalition of 56 organizations, have repeatedly spoken out against the enforced disappearances in Bangladesh believed to be led by government security forces.