After a weeklong fact-finding visit to Bangladesh, a four-member delegation of the New York-based media watchdog asked the government from a press conference at the Hotel Sonargaon to open investigations into threats to journalists and prosecute the killers.

"In Bangladesh journalists are working increasingly under threat," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper from the US, who led the team of Abi Wright from the US, Iqbal Athas from Sri Lanka and Andreas Harsono from Indonesia.

Listing savage attacks on journalists -- from Tipu Sultan to Manik Saha, she said: "I can't imagine to take risk to continue my profession here as journalist. It takes real courage to be a journalist in Bangladesh."

Cooper said physical assaults and intimidation were almost commonplace, especially in rural areas where journalists are threatened, beaten severely, or murdered just for reporting.

She also expressed concern at the stabbing of eminent writer Humayun Azad in what she said was a clear attack on freedom of writing and expression.

Wright took a swipe at the state-controlled BSS news agency for mass termination of journalists on political grounds.

"Those who try to silence journalists must be held accountable," the CPJ emphasised in a statement.

"Without justice … the cycle of violence will continue, and so will Bangladesh's reputation as the most violent country in Asia for journalists," the organisation said.

The CPJ said police must recognise the right of a journalist to cover public demonstration safely and called for investigations into beatings of several journalists covering the Dhaka University demonstration on March 3 against the attack on Azad, author of over 50 books.

At least seven journalists have been killed and dozens assaulted or threatened in Bangladesh since 1997 in reprisal for their work, the CPJ said in an account of violence against newspersons, intense in the southwest.

"Local journalists, who report on such topics as corruption or organised crime are frequently targeted by criminal gangs or underground groups," the statement says, adding prosecution is rare, even in some high-profile cases.

The delegates were under watch in Dhaka of intelligence agencies. Harsono, an Indonesian journalist, said intelligence agents on motorbikes shadowed the delegation almost every where.

The CPJ leaders met with ministers and politicians, including Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina, but a request for a meeting with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was not granted. They also met editors, reporters and photojournalists working for print and broadcast media in Dhaka.

The CPJ put forward several recommendations, including timely action in the case against those charged with the 2001 beating of Tipu, former UNB correspondent in Feni. The prosecution of all those who killed Manik Saha in Khulna and Shamsur Rahman in Jessore and assaulted Shafiul Huq Mithu in Pirojpur and Prabir Sikdar in Faridpur also figures on the list of recommendations.

The CPJ called for an end to the use of sedition or anti-state charges to detain journalists, including Salah Uddin Shoaib Chowdhury, now in prison, and timely action considering the licence application of Ekushey Television.