The foreign ministry on Saturday said it has been brought to the notice of the government of Bangladesh that a few international media and institutions are claiming that a journalist in Bangladesh, named Shamsuzzaman, has been arrested as he wrote about 'cost of living in Bangladesh'.
“This information is totally false and fabricated. This journalist was arrested because of ‘child abuse’ and ‘child exploitation',” the ministry said in a statement.
“Many media have been continuously reporting on the cost of living everyday in Bangladesh since the beginning of the Ukraine War which has created global rise of cost of living,” read the statement.
“No one is arrested due to such reporting. The said journalist was arrested because of child abuse and child exploitation, as he offered ten taka to a 9-year old boy and then expressed his own views in the name of that child. That is surely an act of child abuse and exploitation.
“Secondly, he tried to undermine the independence of Bangladesh on the great Independence Day. These acts are surely tantamount to punishable crimes.
“The government of Bangladesh is committed to uphold freedom of expression for all its citizens and the media.
“However, creating social unrest by undertaking such fraudulent act is contrary to the spirit of honest journalism.
“The government of Bangladesh, as a Party to the UN Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), would not tolerate any such act of abusing children. The government would also not accept any such effort aimed at maligning the great Independence Day of the nation,” read the statement.