Govt will have to pay the price very dearly for repression on journalists: Manna

PBC NEWS DESK: Nagorik Oikya president Mahmudur Rahman Manna has warned saying that the arrest of Prothom Alo journalist Shamsuzzaman Shams amounts to putting the last nail in the coffin of the freedom of press in Bangladesh.

“This government will have to pay the price very dearly for the repression of journalists.”He said the arrest of journalist Shams proves that there is no freedom of press in Bangladesh.

In a statement on Wednesday, Mahmudur Rahman Manna said the present autocratic government could not tolerate the real scenario of silent famine exposed in his report.

Because of it, law enforcers picked him up from his house at the dead of night. “The illegal government now in power wants to establish autocratic BKSAL system through the control of mass media,” he said.

Terming the arrest of Shams as the exposure of government’s “nervousness,” he said, “They (government) have lost all their senses fearing to lose power.

The government has become desperate in the wake of domestic public dissatisfaction and pressure from the democratic countries around the world. Because of it, the government has resorted to supression, repression, attack and implicating in false cases.

At the same time, they are trying to control mass media. But, it will bring disaster to the government.”Demanding the release of Shams as early as possible, the Nagorik Oikya president called for releasing Shams within the next 24 hours.