The CHT Commission has expressed concern over the 'harassment' of the organisers and participants in a media workshop by the officials of National Security Intelligence on April 28 at Mohammadpur in the city.
In a statement issued on Monday, the commission said that on April 28 the NSI officials asked the secretariat of the CHT commission over phone to allow one of its officials at the workshop and finally deployed an official outside the auditorium of the Association from Land Reform and Development when the workshop was in progress.
The statement said that the NSI official had questioned several staff of ALRD at the venue about the nature of the workshop and the identities of the participants. The NSI officials claimed that it was 'a matter of national security' as some of the participants in the workshop came from the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
The statement also said that one of the resource persons of the workshop, Saleem Samad, was also questioned over phone several times by members of the NSI about the nature of the workshop.
'The commission considers these acts as attempts at intimidation and harassment by the intelligence,' it said.
The statement signed by the co-chair of the commission, Eric Avebury, Sultana Kamal and Ida Nicolaisen urged the government to take necessary steps to protect the commission secretariat, including the journalists who had participated in the workshop, from harassment by intelligence people, to guarantee the right to freedom of expression in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
They also called for immediate implementation of the CHT accord.
The CHT Commission, with logistic support from the ALRD organised the workshop for journalists titled 'Reporting on CHT and Indigenous Peoples' in 27-29. Media professionals from Dhaka as well as the three hill districts attended the workshop.
Source: New Age
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