Ganatantra Mancha demands immediate withdrawal of case against Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman

Ganatantra Mancha on Thursday demanded immediate withdrawal of case filed against Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman under the Digital Security Act (DSA) and release of the newspaper’s staff correspondent Samsuzzaman in the same case.

The Ganatantra Mancha, an alliance of several political parties, said in a media release that a fictitious case was filed against Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman and journalist Samsuzzaman under the Digital Security Act with Ramna police station at the dead of night on 29 March just to harass them.

Hinting at the picking up of Samsuzzaman from his residence in Savar, on the outskirts of capital Dhaka in the small hours, the Ganatantra Mancha said such detention of a journalist and filing of a case against the editor of the country’s leading newspaper under the Digital Security Act is a blow to the freedom of speech and press freedom.

The Ganatantra Mancha leaders expressed their deep concerns in this incident.

Amid this, after keeping Samsuzzaman detained at an undisclosed place for nearly 30 hours, the journalist was not granted bail at the court and sent to jail on Thursday, the media release added.

It also said since the enactment of controversial Digital Security Act, newspersons and dissenting political leaders and activists have been equally tortured under the act for their opinions.

Prothom Alo’s special correspondent Rozina Islam and many other newspersons across the country have been tortured by the different government agencies and ruling party and its associate bodies, say media reports.

In this context, the Ganatantra Mancha demanded immediate annulment of the Digital Security Act and withdrawal of false cases filed against the newspersons and other people for their dissenting views.