Bangladesh asks local media to skip Hasina’s speech hours after Reuters reports her return plan

The government makes the call for “the sake of law and order in the country” and “respecting a court ruling”

The government has requested all media outlets not to broadcast or publish the speech of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who is in exile in India and facing a death sentence for crimes against humanity linked to the July Uprising.

In a public advisory on Friday night, it drew the attention of print, electronic, online news media outlets and social media platforms, asking them to comply with the decision for the sake of law and order in the country and respecting a court ruling.

It recounted that the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) had banned the broadcast of the speech of the ousted and fugitive Hasina on Dec 5, 2024.

“According to the prevailing law of Bangladesh, there is a legal ban on broadcasting any kind of speech, interview, audio-video speech of a fugitive convicted by a court in the media.”

Earlier in the day, news agency Reuters published a telephone interview with Sheikh Hasina, in which the Awami League chief said she and senior party colleagues plan to return from exile in India around December and surrender to court.

Her party's activities are banned in Bangladesh while many of her party colleagues are either convicted or stand trial over “killings” linked to the 2024 student-led protests that had toppled her government.