UNESCO chief condemns killing of Bangladeshi blogger

The head of the United Nations agency mandated to defend press freedom has denounced the murder of a Bangladesh-based blogger, and reiterated the call for local authorities to defend freedom of expression and public debate in the South Asian country.  The blogger, Washiqur Rahman Babu, who advocated secularism, was hacked to death by machete-wielding assailants in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on March 30, the second attack in five weeks on a critic of religious extremism in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation.  “It is important that the Bangladeshi authorities find and prosecute those responsible for this attack,” Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), declared in a press release on Thursday.   “Freedom of expression and free debate cannot thrive in a climate of fear and self-censorship,” she said. 

In recent years, a string of secular-minded writers have been targeted by religious militants in Bangladesh as the government has tried to crackdown on hardline Islamist groups seeking to create a Sharia-based state in the nation.  Bangladesh ranks 146 out of 180 countries on the press freedom index of the group Reporters Without Borders. 

In a report released in March 2014, UNESCO stressed the growing trend of media workers being killed around the world. Focusing on the latest challenges affecting media development and freedom of expression, the report, called World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, noted that more than 430 journalists were killed between 2007 and 2012. (Source: UN)