TIB strongly condemns shameless assault of the police upon media professionals.
Dhaka, May 27, 2012:Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) strongly condemned the shameless assault by the police upon on-duty media professionals at an event yesterday in women’s polytechnic Institute.
Iftekharuzzaman, Executive Director of TIB said in a statement,“we demand exemplary punishment of the perpetrators. Simple ‘closing’ and ‘temporary suspension’ are far from enough.” Such unruly conduct is not only detrimental to media freedom, but also absolutely undemocratic and unconstitutional, he added.
In this context TIB also expressed deep concern over the growing evidences of excessive abuse of power by the police and RAB which may eventually convert the law enforcers into law breakers. Failure of these agencies and the government to control such unconstitutional and undemocratic trends will erode public trust upon them and tarnish the credibility of the government.
“We are also concerned that conduct of law enforcing agencies often bears evidence of partisan political influence. We call upon the authorities to attach highest priority to building the ethical and professional standards of the law enforcing agencies, and create conditions where they can function without partisan political influence”, the statement said.
