Politics sits heavy on Bangladesh journalism: CPJ

The dividing line between politics and journalism has become more blurred than ever before in Bangladesh, says a report of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Bangladesh was among nine countries identified as facing decline in press freedom -- it has found its way into the CPJ’s Risk List for 2013.
Journalists were “attacked from all sides” during the political conflict and heavy polarization during 2013, the CPJ observed, according to a news agency.
CPJ describes the year of unrest in Bangladesh with the start of the pro-liberation Shahbagh movement or Ganajagaran Mancha against the life sentence awarded to war criminal Abdul Quader Molla.
That movement, it says, upset the religious right and led to the surfacing of ‘Islamists’ groups like Hifazat-e Islam.
The committee claimed journalists were attacked in both Shahbagh and Hifazat events.
It said online bloggers were both “victims of violence and government persecution”.
“Street clashes between Islamists and secularists led to a rapidly deteriorating climate that threatened press freedom, when journalists speaking out on sensitive issues were targeted by all sides,” the CPJ report said.