“There are already a dozen cases piling up against me,” she said. “I’m a journalist. One murder case is enough to frame me.”

Rupa, a former chief correspondent at privately owned broadcaster Ekattor TV, now faces nine murder cases. Her husband, Shakil Ahmed, the channel’s former head of news, is named in eight.  

A year ago, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge of Bangladesh’s interim government after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country following weeks of student-led protests, during which two journalists were killed.

Yunus promised media reform and repealed the Cyber Security Act, a law used to target journalists under Hasina. But in a November 2024 interview with newspaper The Daily Star, Yunus said that murder accusations against journalists were being made hastily. He said the government had since halted such actions and that a committee had been formed to review the cases.

Still, nearly a year later, Rupa, Ahmed, Shyamal Dutta and Mozammel Haque Babu, arrested on accusations of instigating murders in separate cases, remain behind bars. The repeated use of such charges against journalists who are widely seen as sympathetic to the former regime appear to be politically motivated censorship.

In addition to such legal charges, CPJ has documented physical attacks against journalists, threats from political activists, and exile. At least 25 journalists are under investigation for genocide by Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal – a charge that has been used to target figures linked to the former Hasina government. 

“Keeping four journalists behind bars without credible evidence a year on undermines the interim government’s stated commitment to protect press freedom,” said CPJ Regional Director Beh Lih Yi. “Real reform means breaking from the past, not replicating its abuses. All political parties must respect journalists’ right to report as the country is set for polls in coming months.”

A CPJ review of legal documents and reports found that journalists are often added to First Information Reports (FIRs) – documents that open an investigation – long after they are filed. In May, UN experts raised concern that over 140 journalists had been charged with murder following last year’s protests.

Shyamal Dutta’s daughter, Shashi, told CPJ the family has lost track of how many cases he now faces. They are aware of at least six murder cases in which he is named, while Babu’s family is aware of 10. Rupa and Ahmed’s family told CPJ that they haven’t received FIRs for five cases in which one or the other journalist has been named, which means that neither can apply for bail.

Shafiqul Alam, Yunus’s press secretary, and police spokesperson Enamul Haque Sagor did not respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. 

Violence and threats

In 2025, reporters across Bangladesh have faced violence and harassment while covering political events, with CPJ documenting at least 10 such incidents, most of which were carried out by members or affiliates of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its student wing, Chhatra Dal. In several instances, journalists sustained serious injuries or were prevented from reporting after footage was deleted or phones seized, including Bahar Raihan, Abdullah Al Mahmud, and Rocky Hossain.

Responding to the allegations, Mahdi Amin, adviser to Acting BNP Chair Tarique Rahman, told CPJ that while isolated misconduct may occur in a party of BNP’s size, the party does not protect wrongdoers. 

Others have faced threats from supporters of different political parties and the student groups that led the protests against Hasina. Reporters covering opposition groups like Jamaat-e-Islami or its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, have come under particular pressure. On June 9, Hasanat Kamal, editor of EyeNews.news, told CPJ he’d fled to the United Kingdom after being falsely accused by Islami Chhatra Shibir of participating in a violent student protest. Anwar Hossain, a journalist for the local daily Dabanol, told CPJ he’d been threatened by Jamaat supporters after publishing negative reports about a local party leader. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to Abdus Sattar Sumon, a spokesperson for Jamaat-e-Islami, but received no response.

Since Hasina’s ouster, student protesters from the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement (ADSM) have increasinglytargeted journalists they accuse of supporting the former regime, which in one case led to the firing of five journalists. Student-led mobs have also besieged outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star. 

CPJ reached out via messaging app to ADSM leader Rifat Rashid but received no response.

On July 14, exiled investigative journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who fled Bangladesh after exposing alleged high-level corruption under Hasina and receiving threats from Awami League officials, posted on X about the repression of the media: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Kunal Majumder/CPJ India Representative.

On October 23, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of the Weekly Blitz, published a separate article in the right-wing digital media outlet HinduPost, reviewed by CPJ, alleging Saer Khan had been deported from Hungary to the United Kingdom, where he was “funding and promoting pro-Hamas and anti-Israel rallies.”

Saer Khan, an independent investigative journalist, told CPJ by phone that he denied all allegations, which also extended to accusations of involvement in drug trafficking and fraud. He said he has been targeted in a campaign that seeks to discredit his work and could potentially endanger his safety.

Saer Khan said he believed he was being targeted in retaliation for his upcoming report on alleged high-level government corruption in Bangladesh to be published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). On September 25, two days before the latest round of Weekly Blitz articles against him, the journalist sent a series of emails requesting comment from the subjects of his investigative article.

In recent years, the Weekly Blitz has repeatedly published articles, reviewed by CPJ, accusing Saer Khan, along with other journalists critical of the Bangladesh government, of criminal activities.

On March 17, four unidentified men beat Mahinur Khan, Saer Khan’s brother, with iron rods in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, accusing the latter of “writing about the PM [prime minister]” and “against the government.” As of November 22, no suspects had been held accountable, Saer Khan said.

Choudhury told CPJ via email that the Weekly Blitz stood by its reporting and was unaware of Saer Khan’s upcoming report for the OCCRP.

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Arlene Getz/CPJ Editorial Director.

On the evening of March 17, in the capital city of Dhaka, four unidentified men beat Mahinur Khan with iron rods and kicked him while accusing his brother of writing “about the PM [prime minister]” and “against the government,” according to Al-Jazeera and Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who spoke to CPJ by phone. The men took a video of the attack before leaving the scene, Zulkarnain Saer Khan said.

Zulkarnain Saer Khan, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom where he works as a researcher with Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera’s investigative unit, recently published investigative reports on alleged corruption by government officials with the ruling Awami League party, and the country’s expanding surveillance apparatus.

“The attack on the brother of Bangladeshi journalist Zulkarnain Saer Khan is the latest case of the family of journalists in exile being targeted back home,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Bangladesh has built a reputation in this heinous form of transnational vengeance. Authorities must ensure the perpetrators of this attack are held accountable and that the Khan family can live safely.”

Mahinur Khan was hospitalized and sustained a torn ligament in his leg, broken kneecaps, and significant swelling and bruising throughout his body, according to his brother and that Al-Jazeera report.

Locals informed the Khan family that the attackers were supporters of Humayoun Rashid Jony, a Dhaka official and member of the Awami League, Zulkarnain Saer Khan said.

Mahinur Khan’s wife filed a complaint at the Dhaka Mirpur Model Police Station on March 17. The investigating officer in the case, Sub-Inspector Shahin Alam, visited the family’s home to inquire about the attack and said that police were unable to identify any suspects, Zulkarnain Saer Khan told CPJ, adding that no suspects have been apprehended as of March 24.

CPJ contacted Alam via messaging app for comment but did not receive any response. CPJ also emailed Jony and contacted him via messaging app, but he did not reply.

Zulkarnain Saer Khan has contributed to Al-Jazeera, the investigative news website Netra News, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, according to CPJ’s review of his work.

Bangladesh law enforcement have submitted multiple requests to Twitter to remove tweets from Khan’s account, where he frequently posts political news and commentary, including one in November 2022 that alleged Bangladesh government officials had submitted malicious reports to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, resulting in multiple temporary restrictions on the journalist’s Facebook page.

CPJ called and messaged Dhaka police spokesperson Roy Niyati and emailed Prime Minister Hasina’s office and the Awami League for comment, but did not receive any replies.

CPJ has previously documented retaliation against the family members of foreign-based Bangladeshi journalists, including the September 2022 arrests of the brothers of U.K.-based Shamsul Alam Liton and Abdur Rab Bhuttow and the October 2021 arrest of the sister of U.S.-based Kanak Sarwar. Those journalists’ siblings have been released on bail, the journalists told CPJ via messaging app.

[Editors’ note: This article has been changed in its third paragraph to correctly characterize Khan’s employment.]

This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Erik Crouch.