Editors’ Council President and New Age Editor Nurul Kabir has alleged that sections of the government allowed the attacks, vandalism and arson at the media houses Prothom Alo, The Daily Star and cultural centre Chhayanaut Bhaban to take place.
He made the remarks while speaking as a special guest at the sixth broadcast conference of the Broadcast Journalists Center (BJC) at the International Mother Language Institute in Segunbagicha, Dhaka, on Saturday.
Information and Broadcasting Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan attended the event as the chief guest.
Referring to the incidents of December 18, Nurul Kabir said the attacks on the country’s leading media houses were “targeted and organised.”
On that night, Prothom Alo’s office was attacked, vandalised, set on fire and looted, leaving large parts of the premises gutted. The office of The Daily Star was also vandalised and torched the same night. Nurul Kabir himself was reportedly harassed while visiting The Daily Star office to express solidarity.
The incidents have sparked widespread protests and condemnation, with many terming the day a “black day for the media” and describing the attacks as a direct assault on independent journalism. The issue featured prominently in speeches by several speakers at the BJC conference.
“We clearly knew that announcements had been made one or two days earlier to destroy Prothom Alo, The Daily Star and Chhayanaut,” Nurul Kabir said. “Everyone in this country knows who made those announcements, and the government knows it too. Under any law in Bangladesh, that is a criminal offence. Yet no preventive arrests were made. That is why we say that some part of the government allowed this to happen.”
He further alleged that an organised group carried out the attacks and claimed that political identities had already emerged among those arrested.
The conference, moderated by journalist Shahnaz Sharmin, was also addressed by former Media Reforms Commission head and The Daily Star consulting editor Kamal Ahmed, Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain, senior journalist and BJC adviser Khairul Anwar, Jamuna Television CEO and BGC trustee Fahim Ahmed, BBC Media Action’s local correspondent Md Al Mamun, and journalists Talat Mamun, Ilias Hossain and Milton Anwar.