The despotic arrest by Bangladeshi police of prominent photojournalist and activist Shahidul Alam, an internationally recognised photojournalist, has outraged the world community.
13 renowned persons across the world issued an open letter published on the British Daily 'The Guardian' demanding immediate release of Shahidul Alam on Sunday.
Signatories including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Binayak Sen condemn the treatment of photojournalist Shahidul Alam in the letter.
Alam has been detained by the police due to an interview to al-Jazeera in which he expressed views critical of the Bangladeshi regime’s brutal repression of public demonstrations in Dhaka, and had allegedly posted equally critical statements on Facebook, said the letter.
The letter quoted a Dhaka Tribune report that he was abducted from his home on Aug 5 for his “provocative remarks”. He has subsequently expressed concerns for his life.
He appeared in Dhaka additional chief metropolitan magistrate’s court two days later, accused under Section 57 of the infamous Information and Communication Technology Act for online speech that “hurts the image of the nation”, the letter also mentioned.
The signatories stressed that a free press is a fundamental and essential element of all democracies. Its repression cannot be taken as anything but the efforts of authoritarian regimes to deny the world insight into its operations and policies.
"We condemn his unjust treatment unequivocally."
Earlier, renowned writers, journalists and artists from all over the world including American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky and Indian writer Arundhati Roy urged Bangladesh government to free Shahidul Alam.