
Bangladesh: An Attack on Bloggers
Secular bloggers in Bangladesh are being hunted down and killed. This report tracks a wave of machete attacks that has claimed four prominent writers in a single year, along with a publisher linked to one of the victims. Reporters speak with surviving bloggers who now write under pseudonyms or from hiding, with activists who describe police indifference and government reluctance to name the Islamist groups claiming responsibility, and with family members of the dead. The film lays out how online lists naming atheist and secular writers have circulated for years, effectively marking targets, and how each murder follows a similar pattern: a public hacking attack in broad daylight, followed by little prosecution. Interviews trace the chilling effect on Bangladesh's small community of freethinkers and secular publishers, many of whom are now leaving the country. The report treats the killings as part of a broader struggle over free expression and secularism in Bangladesh, not an isolated crime wave.