None identified for harassing journalists during City polls

An Election Commission (EC) inquiry has failed to identify those who harassed journalists during the Apr 28 City polls and tried stopping them from entering polling stations.

The EC's probe body filed its findings on Tuesday after recording statements of more than a hundred people over the last two months.
 
Those responsible for harassing journalists have been not identified due to lack of proper evidence and witness over the written complaint filed by members of the media, says the probe body’s report.
 
The committee, consisting representatives of the administration and law enforcing agencies as well as election officials, recommended imposing more restrictions on journalists entering polling stations.
 
“We have received the full report by the inquiry committee, which will be discussed in the next EC meeting,” EC Secretary Md Sirajul Islam told bdnews24.com.
 
The inquiry body’s Member Secretary Farhad Ahmad Khan said their findings over similar allegations in Chittagong will be filed with the EC ‘soon’.
 
Incidents of journalists being harassed were reported in media during the polls in the capital and the port city. The EC acted promptly and instructed its officials the same day to investigate the issue.
 
The inquiry body managed to mark out 30 polling stations in Dhaka, from where such incidents were reported. Journalists were also asked for their testimonies.
 
An official involved with the inquiry told bdnews24.com that officials of concerned centres, police, magistrate or the observers denied harassment of journalists.
 
“In their testimonies, journalists alleged harassment. However, when called again for recording the same statements with other parties present, they did not show up,” said the official, preferring anonymity.  
   
The inquiry report says that the allegations could not be proved due to a 'lack of facts'.
 
It also gave some recommendations to avoid such incidents in future.
 
The report says that trainee journalists should not be assigned to cover voting centres.
 
It also recommends ‘clear and detailed guidelines’ on how many journalists can enter a polling station at a time, how long and on what issues they can interview polling agents, election officials and law enforcers as well as what can be photographed and video-graphed.