DHAKA (Reuters) - Four journalists were killed and 158 wounded in Bangladesh over the past year while discharging professional duties, a local media monitoring group said on Thursday at a seminar to observe World Press Freedom Day.
"During the last 12 months, from May 2006 to April 2007, a total of 498 journalists were harassed during their professional duties," said Kamrul Hassan Monju, executive director of the Mass-line Media Centre (MMC).
Among them four were killed, 158 wounded, 99 more attacked, two jailed, and six arrested, he said, while others were subjected to harassment including the filing of false cases by police or those unhappy with their reporting.
MMC records showed at least 13 journalists had been killed and 38 jailed in the last five years in Bangladesh, Monju said.
The United Nations launched World Press Freedom Day in 1993 and it chose "Safety of Journalists" as this year's theme.
Many journalists were subject to attacks during political turmoil in Bangladesh in 2006, especially around the end of the year when followers of former prime ministers Begum Khaleds Zia and Sheikh Hasina battled for control of the streets.
As the violence spilled onto the streets, disrupting business and transports, an army-backed interim government imposed a state of emergency and cancelled polls due in January.
It banned all political activities indefinitely but offered assurances it would preserve press freedom.
However, journalists say that while the media are sill largely free, they often are subjected to informal controls.
