Dhaka, Feb 14: Editors of leading national dailies in Bangladesh have expressed deep concern at the killing of a journalist last week and called for united action to protect lives and professional freedom of journalists.

The Forum to Protect Journalists (FPJ), a grouping of editors of 23 national dailies published from Dhaka, said: "We are extremely concerned that journalists are dying at regular intervals, yet the government and the administration remain indifferent and unconcerned."

The statement follows the death last week of Shaikh Belaluddin, the bureau chief of Sangram Khulna newspaper, from injuries in a Feb 5 bomb attack in Khulna town that also injured three other journalists.

The statement said: "So far not a single incident has either been properly investigated or the culprits punished. We think this fact alone may have emboldened the culprits and given them a sense of impunity to act against journalists."

The FPJ announced it would organise simultaneous protest rallies at all press clubs across the country.

The statement said: "Over the last decade 14 journalists were murdered while performing their professional duties. In Khulna alone, in the last one year, three journalists were killed. We cannot accept this situation anymore.

"The time has come for united action to protect the lives and professional freedom of journalists.

"We call upon all editors, journalists, publishers, and all those involved in the newspaper industry to join hands to resist the killing, attack, threat and harassment being faced by journalists," the statement said.

Courtesy Indo-Asian News Service