Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) media cell has communicated that it is closely monitoring the media outlets of Bangladesh.
A post from the verified Facebook page of BNP’s media cell says, “We are closely observing which media outlets are for democracy and which are ‘for the dictatorship’.”
Incidentally, the post addressing the media comes after US Ambassador Peter Haas, during a TV interview, saying that media in Bangladesh could also come under the purview of US visa restrictions.
BNP-Jamaat leaders including Rumeen Farhana, BNP`s international affairs secretary, have hailed the US ambassador’s remark on including media in the visa restrictions and named a number of private television channels that BNP has boycotted.
Moreover, another BNP leader Shamsuzzaman Dudu during a recent live talk show failed to control his temper and asked the host to “join Awami League”.
While the BNP media cell projected the measure of monitoring the media for the sake of “democracy”, analysts and media experts found the communication from the party and its leaders to be “intimidation” ahead of the national election.
Earlier this year, BNP’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had lashed out at a TV channel for “running a story” on the corruption issue involving the party’s top leadership.
“That report on our leaders — Tarique Rahman and Begum Zia — is like back-stabbing our democratic movement against the government. As we continue our movement to restore democracy, they should abstain from airing such reports,” Fakhrul had said.
