The only newspaper of Bangladesh\u2019s main opposition party halted printing on Monday after a government suspension order was upheld, stoking fears about media freedom in the South Asian nation.
\nCampaigners and foreign governments including the United States have long expressed worries about efforts by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to silence criticism and what they see as creeping authoritarianism.
\nThe Dainik Dinkal, a broadsheet Bengali-language newspaper, has been a vital voice of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for more than three decades. It employs hundreds of journalists and press workers.
\nIt covers news stories that the mainstream newspapers, most of which are controlled by pro-government businessmen, rarely do.
\nThis includes the frequent arrests of BNP activists and what the party says are thousands of fake cases against its supporters.
\nThe newspaper said the Dhaka district authorities ordered the shutdown on December 26, but it continued to publish after making an appeal at the Press Council headed by a top high court judge.
\n\u201cThe council rejected our appeal yesterday (Sunday), upholding the district magistrate\u2019s order to stop our publication,\u201d Shamsur Rahman Shimul Biswas, managing editor of the newspaper, told AFP.
\nThe order, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, said the printing permit of the newspaper was cancelled after the newspaper violated the country\u2019s printing and publication laws.
\nThe council said the paper\u2019s publisher, Tarique Rahman \u2014 the acting chief of BNP \u2014 was a convicted criminal and was living abroad without handing over his job to another person.
\nBiswas said Rahman, now based in London, submitted his resignation and appointed a new publisher, but the authorities did not accept the changes.
\n\u201cThis shutdown is all part of the government crackdown on dissenting voices and freedom of speech,\u201d Biswas said.
\nThe government on Monday did not comment on the shutdown.
\nTwo Dhaka-based journalist unions said in a joint statement that the decision was a \u201creflection of the repression of opposition voices\u201d.
\nUnions and journalists staged small street protests over the shutdown on Monday.
\nLast month, Hasina\u2019s government ordered the closure of 191 websites it accuses of publishing \u201canti-state news\u201d, citing intelligence reports.
\nThe Bangladesh government has previously blocked websites several times, notably in December 2018 ahead of national elections.
\nThe 2022 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders ranked Bangladesh at 162, worse than Russia (155) and Afghanistan (156).
\nBangladesh\u2019s draconian Digital Security Act, under which hundreds of people have been arrested since 2018, has caused particular alarm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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