Press Freedom
Eighty-four deadlines, and no answer for two murdered journalists
Ten years after Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi were killed at home in Dhaka, UN experts described a pervasive culture of impunity.
Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi were killed in their apartment in Dhaka on 11 February 2012. Their young son was in the home. Both were television journalists. Ten years later, investigators had not put a completed case before a court.[1]
The delay was not an absence of procedure. Courts repeatedly gave the investigating agency more time. By November 2021, the deadline had reportedly been extended for the eighty-fourth time. Process had become the means by which the absence of a result was normalised.
On the tenth anniversary, UN experts described an appalling and pervasive culture of impunity for killings of journalists and human-rights defenders in Bangladesh.[2] They called for prompt, thorough, independent and effective investigations.
The motive has never been judicially established. A connection to the couple's reporting has often been alleged, but allegation is not a finding.[3] The narrower fact is severe enough: two journalists were murdered in their home, and after a decade the State could not say who did it or why. Every extension without an answer told other reporters what protection was worth.
Citations & source document
- [1]UN experts' statement — ten years without justiceTen years without justiceThe murders and the incomplete investigation a decade later.
- [2]UN experts' statement — impunityA pervasive culture of impunityThe experts' assessment of a pervasive culture of impunity.
- [3]UN experts' statement — unresolved motiveMotive was not judicially determinedNo judicial finding on motive or responsibility.
Every document cited above is held on this site, with the key clauses, extracts and findings set out in full and a link to the document of record.
Sources
Independent reporting by Pearce Robinson. Corrections and responses may be submitted here.
