Five journalists arrested in a week

Reporters Without Borders today deplored the arrest of five journalists of the privately-owned media in the course of a week, calling for the immediate release of one of them and for interior minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury to say why three others were arrested. It also asked the ministry of education to explain why its officials attacked and briefly detained two television reporters. Moniruzzaman Monir, correspondent for the newspaper Dainik Jugantor in the south town of Nalchity, was arrested on 23 October after the brother of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party leader Abu Bakr Siddique filed a complaint alleging violence and extortion. The paper had printed an article by Monir about corruption by the group's local leader. Three journalists in the southern town of Agailjhara -- Saiful Islam, of Dainik Jugantor, Omar Ali Sani, of Dainik Ittefaq, Babu, of the local daily Dainik Gono Jagaron, -- were arrested on 30 October. They were officially accused of extortion but their arrest is thought to have been linked with recent articles in the national press about illegal tree-felling. A senior police officer is said to have concocted false evidence against them. They were freed on bail after journalists in the district capital, Barisal, pressed for their release. Two television journalists, Mujib Masud and Mamoon Abdullah, who work for a new programme called "Roving Eye," broadcast by the privately-owned station Channel-1, were attacked and detained by officials at the education ministry building on 27 October. They were rescued by members of the Dhaka Reporters Unity journalists' organisation. Helal Uddin, correspondent of the daily paper Bhorer Kagoj in the northwestern town of Sirajgang, was arrested on 21 October, but it was not clear if the arrest was related to his work. He was picked up by the army, which is conducting a nationwide drive against crime and political violence. He appeared in court on 28 October, but was refused bail. The next hearing of the case was set for 9 November.