Police obstruct journalist from live telecast

Police today obstructed a journalist of a private television and took away his boom microphone while he went on live telecast from the footpath in front of the National Parliament.

They also misbehaved with Sayeed Arman, a senior reporter of Nagorik Television, and advised him "not to practice journalism without having proper knowledge".

Terming the action against press freedom, Arman said they went to South Plaza of the parliament around 10:00am to cover BNP lawmekrs' resignation.

All channels covered their news and left the spot by 1:00pm. But the office of Nagorik Television told its journalist to go on live at 2:00pm. In the meantime, another police team arrived at the spot, he said.

"When I started the live telecast at 2:00pm, a police constable named Shaheen asked me why am I going live from here? I replied that I have been doing live since morning," Arman said.

"He said it was prohibited to do live from there and shoved me away," he continued.

The cop then took him to a police box where three sub-inspectors were present. The reporter explained the matter to them.

"The police officials there echoed the same and told me to get permission from the Speaker," Arman said.

The policemen then advised him not to practice journalism without having proper knowledge.

Contacted, Faruk Hossain, deputy commissioner (media and public relations) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star that there was no such restriction and the policemen did it by their own volition.

"We will look into the matter," he said.

Condemning the incident, Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU), in a statement, said, "The way police constable took away a journalist's microphone during a live telecast, is shameful. It's against the freedom of media."

The DRU leaders demanded action against the involved policemen.