Why Special Branch at airport stops people on AL regime's 'block list'?

Harassment of journalists by immigration officers at international airports and borders was a common practice during Sheikh Hasina's almost 16-year autocratic regime. 

Surprisingly, even after her ousting on 5 August, this continued. 

In the last three months, many journalists have been harassed. The issue went largely unaddressed until a recent Facebook status was posted by New Age Editor Nurul Kabir. 

In the post, which has since gone viral, Kabir described how the country's immigration authorities had been harassing him at the Dhaka airport every time he travelled abroad for over two decades.

"The harassments include taking my passport away by the intelligence officials, interrogating me about the purposes of the visits although everything [is] written there in the printed documents, keeping me waiting for about an hour, getting my passport pages photographed in violation of my privacy, et cetera and returning the documents a few minutes before taking off… There was no trouble while returning home," he wrote. 

This time, on 18 November, as Kabir was going abroad for a media conference, he expected that his days of harassment at the Dhaka airport were over, at least for some time. But he was proven wrong. 

In his words, "It has been rather doubled this time. One hour while departing and one hour while returning home on 22 November."

This raises the question: why, even after nearly four months since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime, does the autocratic approach of harassing journalists and the media persist in the country? Apparently, this practice was deeply entrenched during Hasina's rule, and the country has yet to fully move past it.

The press wing of the Chief Adviser's office issued a press release on Sunday regarding the matter. According to the release, the SB has launched an investigation into the incidents and has removed the officer accused of harassing Kabir. 

The statement explained that the incident occurred due to a list of individuals created by the previous government of Sheikh Hasina. Thousands of people were placed on this "blocked list", which was intended to harass them during their overseas trips or prevent them from travelling abroad.

There were names of over 10,000 individuals on the "blocked list", according to officials concerned.

Kader Gani Chowdhury, Secretary General of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), explained the motive behind such actions during the Hasina regime. 

"Harassing journalists during Hasina's time was common. As a fascist leader, it was her hallmark to try to silence journalists, and airport harassment was also part of that. She was afraid that journalists could go abroad and expose the misrule, enforced disappearances, killings, human rights violations and suppression of democracy to the outside world," he said.

However, now that a "revolutionary government" has come to power following a mass uprising, he found such practices very surprising. "I think the government should look into this matter very seriously."

That being said, what should also be taken into consideration is that dismantling a deeply embedded system that was established during the Hasina regime is far from easy.

The Special Branch said that following the interim government's assumption of office, it started removing politically connected people, dissidents, journalists, and rights activists from the blocked list.

"Much of this work is being done manually. As a result, some names of dissidents and journalists are still there. We have now expedited our efforts to clean up the list. Once again, we are sorry for the unfortunate incident," the statement said.

To add to that, we also need to remember that since Hasina fled on 5 August, many individuals affiliated with her party, including a significant number of journalists, attempted to leave the country. Therefore, the SB had to take this into account and act accordingly to ensure that no fugitives were able to escape.

What's praiseworthy is how the interim government paid heed to the issue and started to take necessary steps upon learning what happened with Nurul Kabir.

For instance, at a press conference on Sunday at the Foreign Service Academy, Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam also told reporters that the government had decided to implement a policy to prevent any form of harassment during the immigration process at airports.

Nurul Kabir, however, was not happy with the removal of the accused officer concerning what happened to him. While he thanked the government for its quick response, he mentioned in his latest Facebook post on 25 November that he was upset by the government's resolve to punish the junior immigration police officer posted at the airport for his harassment. 

"This officer did not prepare the list of people to be blocked at the airport, rather his senior bosses did. He was personally decent to me and I saw him trying over the phone to get clearance from his boss for my departure as well as leaving the airport on my return," he said. 

"Punishing this gentleman is just scapegoating a junior officer for the senior lot. This is therefore unacceptable. The government authorities should investigate and find out those at the top level who made the list and continued to harass the innocent travellers even after the ouster of an autocratic regime," he also added.

Another question also remains: why did it take someone of Nurul Kabir's stature to go public with a social media post to bring the issue to light? 

It is also worth noting that the interim government has been working on reforming various sectors of the state since assuming power, with reforming the media sector being one of the key areas that should be addressed. However, without ensuring media freedom, the overall reform of the media sector may not be fully realised.

"In the past, regardless of who was in power, journalists remained a constant target. But we don't expect such practice anymore. The situation should be improved under the current government, and that should be the norm going forward," said Kader Gani Chowdhury. 

Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, an advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, expressed a similar sentiment. According to him, there is little professional protection for journalists within the legal system. A new legal framework to protect both the profession and the body and reputation of journalists is essential for them to function properly.

"Article 39 of the Constitution needs to be amended in line with Article 19 of the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The conditions attached to it have made it almost impossible to enjoy the right to freedom of expression and freedom of press," he pointed out. 

Article 39 of Bangladesh's Constitution guarantees freedom of thought, conscience, speech and press but allows reasonable restrictions in specific circumstances, such as threats to national security, public order, decency, morality, friendly foreign relations, contempt of court, defamation or incitement to crime.

Hence, to align Article 39 of Bangladesh's Constitution with Article 19 of the ICCPR, it should explicitly define the permissible restrictions on freedom of speech, introduce a proportionality test to ensure that limitations are necessary and the least intrusive, provide judicial oversight and ensure transparency and accountability in imposing such restrictions.