In a joint statement, President of the council GM Hirak and General Secretary Jabid Hasan Fahim condemned the ‘deplorable’ incident.
The BJSC called upon the government to remove all obstacles to a free press.
“Four editors of bdnews24.com including the editor-in-chief are being threatened and pressured with unethical intention to harass them; Bangladesh Journalism Students Council perceives it as a strategy to obstruct the free press, the statement read.
Toufique Imrose Khalidi, editor-in-chief of bdnews24.com, spoke extensively at a press conference on Wednesday on the “bizarre” attempts to muffle journalism by the influential people.
bdnews24.com said it had published news on court proceedings and orders in cases filed against valiant freedom fighter HBM Iqbal, chairman of Premier Group and a former MP, and members of his family in the past one and a half decades as had other mainstream media.
bdnews24.com also covered the news of acquittal of Iqbal and his family members of the charges.
But it received 36 legal notices from 24 districts as of Tuesday.
The language, statements and demands in the notices, sent under different names, are identical.
The main point of the legal notices is that the reports on Iqbal and his family should be removed as all of them have been acquitted in the cases—a demand that bdnews24.com finds “illogical”, “unreasonable” and “absurd”
“They claim they are now facing problems with their business endeavours because the reports are still on the internet. As such, they want us to take down the old reports,” Khalidi said.
“The reports are not based on bdnews24.com’s own investigation, but they objectively reflect the court proceedings and orders. It naturally begs the question: what logical reason is there for the news publisher to remove these reports?" Khalidi said in his statement.
“We’ve been told repeatedly that others have already removed their reports on the issue. Several attempts were made to manipulate us, engaging influential people including those from the media. Having failed to compel us to remove the reports despite repeated efforts, they have now resorted to a truly bizarre approach.”
JU PRESS CLUB CONDEMNS ‘PRESSURE’
Jahangirnagar University Press Club has urged the government to take necessary steps against the ‘unethical’ pressure on and obstacles for the journalists in performing their professional duties.
“Four senior editors of bdnews24.com are being ‘wrongly’ pressured to take down old reports. We believe that such threats on the media is a hindrance to doing genuine and objective journalism,” JU Press Club President Hasan Tanvir and General Secretary Khalilur Rahman said in a joint statement.
"A free press is mandatory for a balanced state and society. It is a scheme to muffle the media by the influential quarter when journalists face pressure and threat in performing their professional duties. This abominable effort to gag the truth with power and money is never acceptable.”
“We urge the government to take proper action against such effort intended to hinder the press freedom.”