Bangladesh turns diplomats into media spies: CPJ

The deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, has said that Bangladesh government has turned its diplomats into media spies by issuing the journalists monitoring directive.

The US-based group asked the foreign ministry to rescind the instruction publicly.

"This directive turns Bangladeshi diplomats into media spies," Robert Mahoney said in a statement from New York demanding public rescindment of the order.

“It is not the job of government to determine whether journalists are serving the interests of their country through their reporting. This order should be rescinded immediately.”

The foreign ministry earlier instructed all the foreign missions to monitor the activities of the Bangladeshi journalists travelling abroad and report back to Dhaka.

The External Publicity Wing also sent the instruction to the media on Wednesday. It said the decision had been taken on the recommendations of the parliamentary standing committee on the foreign affairs.

Amid criticism, the foreign ministry withdrew the order sending a notice to all missions.

However, the foreign ministry did not issue any media statement in this regard in Dhaka, the way it informed the order to the media.

The CPJ said the Foreign Ministry neither respond to its emailed request for comment nor the director-general of the ministry's External Publicity Wing, Md. Lutfor Rahman answer CPJ's phone call.