Free speech

Shahidul Alam, the internationally recognised photographer who was detained by the Bangladeshi authorities in August after making allegedly “provocative” statements in an interview with Al Jazeera, has recently been released on bail after spending over 100 days in prison.

Following his detention, the award-winning photojournalist immediately became a poster child for free-speech advocacy around the globe. #Freeshahidul became a popular hashtag on Twitter, as Nobel laureates signed petitions, prominent newspapers published numerous op-eds, and diplomats from major nations engaged in overt and back-channel negotiations with Bangladeshi authorities to secure Alam’s release.

The outburst from the international community surprised the Bangladeshi government, given the country’s long and habitually dismal record on human rights. In the eyes of the authorities, Alam was perhaps just another journalist to be thrown into jail, like the many before him, and the more soon to follow. Luckily for Alam, the protestations from the international community eventually became too overbearing for the Bangladeshi authorities to handle.

Prior to Alam’s eventual release, the penultimate flurry of activities from the international community included a full-fledged resolution on the human rights situation in Bangladesh adopted by the European Parliament, in which a special section was dedicated to Shahidul Alam.

Concurrent to the European Parliament’s resolution, but perhaps coincidentally, renowned Indian writer Arundhati Roy published an open letter on Shahidul Alam, drawing parallels between the assaults on free speech in India and Bangladesh. India wields significant psychological and literal sway over affairs in Bangladesh, and Arundhati’s letter was clearly trying to make an emotional appeal to Bangladesh-watchers within India.

Although it is hard to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship, it is noteworthy that within just 48 hours of the European Parliament resolution and Arundhati’s letter, Shahidul Alam was granted bail by the same Bangladeshi judicial system, which only days earlier had refused petitions for his bail four times, as some judges felt “embarrassed” to hear his case.

Although Bangladeshi authorities expressed their willingness to pursue an appeal against Alam’s bail, for the time being, he appears to be free and talking publicly.

The international community played an extraordinary role in securing Shahidul Alam’s release and in keeping his case alive in the realm of global conscience. However, much work still needs to be done as freedom of expression, particularly when it touches politics, remains as perilous as ever in Bangladesh – a country that is becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Take for example the case of Maidul Islam, an associate professor of Sociology at Chittagong University, one of the largest public educational institutions in Bangladesh. Just weeks after Shahidul Alam’s arrest, Maidul was detained and jailed for making ‘derogatory’ remarks about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Facebook. Maidul’s state-run employer chose to quickly suspend him, rather than attempt to protect the freedom of expression of one of its faculty members.

Maidul was victim of the infamous section 57 of the country’s controversial Information Communication and Technology Act (ICT Act), which allows non-bailable arrest of anyone the police considers to have engaged in defamation of the prime minister or her father – the founding president of Bangladesh, also known as the ‘Father of the Nation’ as per the current constitution of Bangladesh.

One intriguing aspect of Maidul Islam’s case is that none of the numerous news stories on his arrest spells out the exact phrases he used in his Facebook post to “defame the prime minister”.

This article has been excerpted from: ‘Bangladesh: Shahidul Alam is back, free speech is not’.

Courtesy: Aljazeera.com