Kolkata:
A journalist in Bangladesh identified for her investigative reports and current exposes on corruption in matters relating to the Covid crisis in the nation, has been sent to jail right after becoming arrested below the Official Secrets Act.
Rozina Islam, a senior journalist with prominent Bengali newspaper Prothom Alo, was allegedly caught “stealing” facts from an workplace in the well being ministry at the country’s secretariat in Dhaka on Monday, according to reports.
A Dhaka Metropolitan Police officer was quoted saying she was arrested for alleged theft and photographing of sensitive state documents below the Bangladesh Penal Act and the Official Secrets Act.
The journalist was detained at a area in the well being ministry workplace for 5 hours, and physically and mentally harassed, her sister who later spoke to her was reported to have stated.
She fell sick but rather of taking her to hospital, Rozina Islam, who is in her early 40s and had taken a COVID-19 vaccine that morning, was sent to the Shahbagh police station late evening, held there all evening and taken to court at 7 am.
The chief metropolitan magistrate dismissed police pleas for her custody for 5 days and sent her to judicial custody at the Kashimpur Women’s Central jail till Thursday.
The incident brought significant numbers of journalists out on the streets of Dhaka on Tuesday and triggered widespread outrage beyond Bangladesh borders. Several worldwide journalists organisations condemned it as an attack on the media in south Asian.
The committee to defend journalists CPJ, the New York based organisation working for the rights of reporters across the globe, demanded the instant release of Rozina Islam.
So did Dhaka Reporters Unity DRU and rights group Ain O Salish Kendra stated Rozina was working to guarantee peoples ideal to facts.
The South Asian Women in Media (SAWM), a network of girls journalists across South Asia, condemned the detention of Rozina Islam and sought her instant release.
Some of the headlines of her newest reports in Prothom Alo contain ‘conflicting reports on kit shortage’, ‘the well being minister does not come to office’, ‘hush hush deal with Russia on vaccines’ and ‘irregularities in 370 crore worth of well being infrastructure obtain.’