UN report shows how DGFI, NSI, RAB intimidated journos to blackout brutalities

As the July protests spread, the DGFI, NSI and RAB sprung into action in a different way. 

It began pressurising media outlets not to report fully and truthfully about the mass protests and their violent suppression. 

As the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) joined the police in intimidating victims, their families and lawyers, a part of it was also regularly calling on journalists with threats to ensure silence, the UN reported yesterday (12 February).

In the report by the UN Human Rights Office, it said the authorities also violated the rights to freedom of expression and media by intimidating and arresting journalists. 

"Ministry of Information officials and DGFI and NSI [National Security Intelligence] agents, including senior officials from the Ministry and DGFI, intimidated editors and journalists by calling them, coming to their offices and private homes and demanding changes to their reporting and broadcasting," the report said.

Highlighting one instance, it said, "RAB officers raided a media outlet, assaulted employees and tried to force them at gunpoint to identify a journalist who had obtained information exposing serious violations by military officers."

In parallel, NSI agents also issued threats against that media outlet to ensure that this information was not published

Journalists further testified to the UN about a general climate of intimidation and pressure from media owners close to the Awami League who did not allow them to freely report on the protests or the government's use of force to suppress them. 

"Instead, some media outlets published misinformation that appears to have been fabricated and spread by intelligence and other government officials," the UN said. 

Meanwhile, revenge violence also targeted journalists and media outlets that were perceived as biased towards Awami League and supportive of the former government past 5 August.