Blogger Rafida Ahmed Bonya, wife of slain science writer Avijit Roy, has received Deutsche Welle’s The Bobs – Best of Online Activism 2015 award for their blogging site Mukto-Mona.
The award ceremony was held yesterday during the Global Media Forum, an international media conference organised by DW in Bonn, Germany.
At the programme, Bonya was asked whether this award would be signal to the Bangladesh authorities to do more to capture those who were for Avijit’s killing.
In reply, Bonya said: “We would just like to see a society without a culture of impunity, where you can talk about everything and anything, and there can be healthy debates. If we don’t agree, we can talk about it, there should be no need to kill someone with a machete. I don’t think we did anything wrong that would justify something like this.
“Let me just say that not only my husband, there have been two other killings. So three killings in as many months this year. And of the 84 names that appear on a 2013 hit-list, nine have been killed ... So this is very serious.
“Maybe I should sound more hopeful, but I don’t know if I can. The truth is that there was already a lot of media attention ... right after my husband was killed. I don’t know what will be done,” said Bonya who sustained severe injuries in that February 2015 attack in Dhaka on them.
Asked what this award meant to the Mukto-Mona community, she said: “I am receiving this award on his [Avijit’s] behalf and the Mukto-Mona community, the readers as well as the writers. I think this award will encourage them to move forward despite the attacks they face.
“If my husband Avijit who was hacked to death on February 26 was here, he would be very happy. Any recognition meant a lot to him.”
Avijit was brutally murdered by fanatics on February 27, during a trip to Bangladesh with his wife. Both Avijit and Bonya are naturalised US citizens, and came to Bangladesh because two of Avijit’s books were published in this year’s book fair.
Mukto-Mona was given the jury award in the Social Change category in recognition to Avijit and Bonya’s works in effectively promoting social issues by giving detailed explanation of topics of critical importance.
A DW letter issued to Bonya on May 13 reads: “Avijit Roy’s work on behalf of a secular society in Bangladesh was a remarkable achievement which required courage and determination.”
Jury Awards for 2015 also went to a community security platform from Mexico and a Syrian-Palestinian videogame. In addition, internet also voted for the People’s Choice Award in all 14 of the Bobs’ languages. In all, there were about 30,000 votes cast.
The Bobs awards were initiated by Deutsche Welle in 2004 to stimulate and enrich public discussion of freedom of expression using online media. This year’s competition received over 4,800 applications.