December 27, 2025 02:28 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Christmas vandalism sparks mass arrests in Raipur; Assam acts too with crackdown on 'religious intolerance' | BJP's VV Rajesh becomes Thiruvananthapuram Mayor after party topples Left's 45-year-rule in city corporation | ‘I can’t bear the pain’: Indian-origin father of three dies after 8-hour hospital wait in Canada hospital | Janhvi Kapoor, Kajal Aggarwal, Jaya Prada slam brutal lynching in Bangladesh, call out ‘selective outrage’ | Tarique Rahman returns to Bangladesh after 17 years | Shocking killing inside AMU campus: teacher shot dead during evening walk | Horror on Karnataka highway: sleeper bus bursts into flames after truck crash, 9 killed | PM Modi attends Christmas service at Delhi church, sends message of love and compassion | Delhi erupts over lynching of Hindu man in Bangladesh; protest outside High Commission | Targeted killing sparks global outrage: American lawmakers condemn mob lynching of Hindu man in Bangladesh

UNESCO chief condemns killing of Bangladeshi blogger

| | Apr 10, 2015, at 02:16 pm
New York, Apr 10 (IBNS): The head of the United Nations agency mandated to defend press freedom denounced on Thursday the murder of Washiqur Rahman Babu, a Bangladesh-based blogger, and reiterated the call for local authorities to defend freedom of expression and public debate in the South Asian country.

“It is important that the Bangladeshi authorities find and prosecute those responsible for this attack,” Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), declared in a press release issued earlier on Thursday.

She said, “Freedom of expression and free debate cannot thrive in a climate of fear and self-censorship.”

According to UNESCO, three men attacked Rahman on 30 March as he left his home in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka to go to work. Rahman used to write under the penname Kutshit Hasher Chhana, or ‘Ugly Duckling.’

In a report released in March 2014, UNESCO stressed the growing trend of media workers being killed around the world. Focusing on the latest challenges affecting media development and freedom of expression, the report, called World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development, noted that more than 430 journalists were killed between 2007 and 2012.

Photo: UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz  

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.