Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) has urged the government to immediately release detained Prothom Alo journalist Rozina Islam.
The Union also announced to hold a human chain protest on Thursday morning in front of the National Press Club warning of intensifying their movements if Rozina Islam is not released immediately.
They will also give a memorandum to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan the same day.
The Union issued a statement today signed by its president Kuddus Afrad and general secretary Sajjad Alam Khan Tapu over the matter.
In the statement, DUJ demanded proper investigation into the harassment of Rozina Islam at the secretariat.
They also condemned the colonial-era Official Secrets Act and identified it as a threat to investigative reporting.
Earlier today, a Dhaka court sent Prothom Alo senior journalist Rozina Islam, arrested in a case under the Official Secrets Act, to judicial custody after rejecting police’s five-day remand plea.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Jashim passed the order after Inspector Arifur Rahman Sardar, the investigation officer in the case, produced the 42-year-old in the court this morning.
The court also fixed May 20 for hearing Rozina’s bail petition.
Rozina Islam, a journalist known for her investigative reporting, was shown arrested Monday on charges of violating the Official Secrets Act.
Maidul Islam Pradhan, senior information officer at the Health Ministry, claimed that she had entered the room of the Private Secretary to the Secretary of Health Services Division between 3pm and 3.30pm “without permission”.
Rozina was handed over to police around 9.45pm after being held at the Secretariat for over five hours.
The Prothom Alo journalist has rejected all the allegations. “I was, in fact, harassed at the Secretariat,” she said immediately after her arrest.
