70 journalists face attacks, arrests, harassment and threats in September
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At least 70 journalists across the country faced physical attacks, arrests, legal harassment and threats while carrying out their professional duties in September. The findings were revealed in the September 2026 monitoring report of the Bangladesh Association of Journalists (BAJ).
The report said press freedom and journalists’ safety are at serious risk due to a culture of impunity and a lack of the rule of law.
The information was disclosed in a press release issued Friday by the Bangladesh Association of Journalists (BAJ), an organization working for journalists’ rights. The release was signed by Mahmudul Hasan, editor of the Research and Monitoring Cell of BAJ.
According to the report, 40 of the affected journalists faced physical attacks and injuries. Eight faced legal harassment and 22 faced direct threats, harassment and obstruction.
The report highlighted several significant incidents of physical attacks and injuries.
It said a local teenage gang in Cox’s Bazar demanded Tk 500,000 in extortion from the family of a journalist. After the family refused to pay the extortion money, gang members attacked them with sharp machetes and hammers. They beat the journalist’s mother with a hammer and hacked his younger brother with a sharp weapon, leaving them bleeding and seriously injured.
In Kachua of Chandpur, a journalist was stopped on the road and attacked after publishing a report about an allegation that a young man had raped his niece. The journalist’s daughter who was with him was also beaten and injured.
In Pallabi of Dhaka, terrorists arrived on motorcycles around 2 am and attacked the home of journalist Pranto Parvez and opened fire after a report was broadcast about extortion by the Ashik Group.
In Mirpur of Dhaka, unruly hawkers surrounded and chased at least six journalists from different media outlets while they were covering an eviction drive against illegal hawkers. They also beat the journalists and tried to seize their cameras. A television vehicle was vandalized.
The report also said a journalist in Naogaon was allegedly made an accused intentionally in a case over the death of a person killed in a clash over land possession. The complainant himself publicly admitted that he did not even know the journalist and said he did not know how the journalist’s name appeared in the first information report.
The affected journalist alleged that he was implicated in the case through the influence of a local Union Parishad chairman to settle a grudge over his previous reports on the chairman’s irregularities and corruption.
In Barguna, police conducted a drug test on a journalist who was arrested in an extortion case. His family claimed that the case was part of a conspiracy. There was no allegation of drug use, possession or any drug related offense against him in the case’s first information report. The test report also found no trace of drugs in his body. Police produced the journalist in court with his hands handcuffed behind his back.
In Ghatail, a journalist submitted a written application under the Right to Information Act seeking information about municipal development work and financial accounts. Angered by the application, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) called the journalist and spoke to him in discourteous language. The UNO also directly threatened to go into “offensive mode.”
The Research and Monitoring Cell of BAJ said it believes the ongoing attacks, obstruction and legal harassment of journalists are caused by a lack of the rule of law and a culture of impunity. It said these incidents pose a threat to a free media.
BAJ said the government must understand that attempts to silence journalists by using political influence or muscle power are damaging the democratic environment.
BAJ is demanding immediate and proper investigations into each incident, exemplary punishment for those responsible and guarantees of journalists’ professional safety.
