Célia Mercier, Head of the RSF South Asia Desk of the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Bangladeshi journalist Monjurul Alam Panna, held arbitrarily since his arrest after participating in a roundtable discussion on 29 August. RSF also stated, “the spurious charges brought against him under Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism law must be dropped”.

According to the statement, Monjurul Alam Panna, who runs the YouTube channel Manchitro, ended the evening in detention after being invited to speak as a journalist at a roundtable debate about Bangladesh’s war of liberation and the constitution.

Organized by the civil society platform Mancha 71 – dedicated to preserving the memory of the War of Independence – this public meeting was held at the auditorium of the independent association Dhaka Reporters Unity, in the capital, Dhaka. It suddenly degenerated when a group of individuals stormed in and accused the participants of “sympathy” for former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, whose authoritarian government fell in 2024 after cracking down bloodily on weeks of massive protests.

Reporters Without Borders in the statement said, “Journalist Monjurul Alam Panna’s detention highlights the increasing authoritarianism of Bangladesh’s interim government, which is using anti-terrorism legislation to silence critical voices. It is unacceptable for a journalist to be treated as a terrorist simply for taking part in a public debate about his country’s history. We call for the spurious charges against him to be dropped and for his immediate release”.

Earlier, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in a statement said,

The case of Monjurul Alam Panna first drew attention of international rights groups following publication of an article in Gatestone Institute.

The article stated: “The South Asia Press Freedom Report 2024-25 documented that trust in Bangladesh’s media remains low after a decade of authoritarian rule, and with the country’s media industry also riven by political loyalties. Under the Hasina regime, journalists were routinely and frequently targeted for expressing critical views under the ATA, the Digital Security Act, and Information and Communication Technology Act”.

Bangladesh stands at a dangerous crossroads. The persecution of journalists under Yunus is not merely an assault on freedom of expression – it is the deliberate dismantling of democracy itself. Every day that Monjurul Alam Panna and other journalists remain behind bars, Bangladesh moves closer to becoming another Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

The international community cannot afford silence. Washington must recognize that a radicalized Bangladesh undermines its Indo-Pacific strategy, while New Delhi needs to prepare for the grave security risks that will most likely spill across its borders. Both the United States and India, along with Europe and other democracies, need to speak with one voice: journalism is not a crime, and silencing the press is a betrayal of fundamental shared values. 

If Yunus’s regime is not challenged now, Bangladesh will not just lose its democracy — it will proceed to export instability across South Asia. The world seriously needs to act– without hesitation — before the voice of freedom in Bangladesh is silenced, perhaps forever.

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