Influential US daily The New York Times has strongly condemned the conviction of Bangladesh-based British journalist David Bergman by the International Crimes Tribunal.
Claiming that “anyone who says or writes anything deemed to be offensive by the court’s arcane and arbitrary criteria is at risk of criminal charges,” the editorial says: “The result is a deep chill on freedom of expression and inquiry.”
It also opined that the journalists and scholars must be able to engage in legitimate inquiry into Bangladesh’s historical record without fear of punishment.
Bergman was sentenced to a symbolic “simple imprisonment till the rising of the court” and a fined of Taka 5,000 (about US$56) for comments he made in three separate blog postings regarding legal proceedings before the ICT.
In his blog, Bergman posted that there is almost no evidence that supports the official number, 3 million, of Liberation War martyrs.
