Mass Reports and Death Threats for the “Crime” of Telling the Truth, but Dhaka Papers Won’t Stop

Dhaka Papers, an independent new media outlet, has come under cyberattack and received death threats from an organized group after publishing content on religious extremism and anti-liberation activities. Most recently, a video published on Oct. 29 drew thousands of reports on Facebook. Before that, two of the outlet’s journalists, Rajekuzzaman Jewel and Naeem Chowdhury, had also received death threats.

Mass Reporting Targets Anti-Extremist Content

On Oct. 29, Dhaka Papers published a piece titled “Imagine There Isn’t a Single Cleric in the Country: What Would Bangladesh Be Like?” Within hours, it spread widely on social media. Overnight, about 4,000 people shared it on their own profiles.

Soon after, a specific extremist group began filing thousands of coordinated reports against the video. The goal was to get the content removed from Facebook and to silence Dhaka Papers.

The content was not removed, however, because a review found no evidence that the video violated any Facebook policy or community standards. Under pressure from the large volume of reports, though, Facebook added a “sensitive content” warning banner to the video. As a result, the video no longer plays automatically, and viewers must choose to click on it to watch.

Two Journalists Threatened Before

Dhaka Papers said its team faces cyberattacks and death threats whenever it publishes content on the activities of militant networks, Jamaat-e-Islami, or radical religious groups.

About a month ago, Dhaka Papers journalist Rajekuzzaman Jewel produced an investigative piece on Runway, a film by the late filmmaker Tareque Masud. It showed what extremism really is and how a young man can be pushed toward destruction through the misinterpretation of religion. After the piece was published, Jewel received death threats by phone and text message. A general diary (GD) has been filed with the police over the incident.

Naeem Chowdhury, another journalist at the outlet, received similar threats. In one piece, he reported that while Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s books have been banned since Aug. 5, books by radical militant organizations are being sold freely at book fairs and in shops. He then received death threats as well.

“Unable to Answer Arguments, They Turn to Reports and Threats”

Dhaka Papers’ management says a certain faction panics whenever the outlet uses historical facts and reasoning to publish content on the history of the people’s liberation struggle of 1971, the crimes committed by organized criminals under the banner of religion, or plots to drag society backward in the name of extremism. According to the outlet, because this faction cannot answer reason with reason, it has instead chosen to report the page, suppress its reach, and make death threats by phone in the middle of the night.

Dhaka Papers said that threats, cyberattacks, and intimidation have not stopped it and will not. It will not retreat from the path of documented truth, from the 1971 Liberation War to the present day.

The outlet urged its viewers and readers to click through and watch, share, and stand on the side of truth whenever they see such a warning banner on any Dhaka Papers content on Facebook or YouTube.

Dhaka Papers said it will continue its independent journalism without bowing to any extremist group, to foreign hegemony and its local collaborators, or to a capitalist system that takes food off the tables of professionals, workers, farmers, and their children.