After more than 100 days of detention, multiple bail pleas and worldwide pressure from media and humanitarian agencies, senior Bangladeshi photographer, teacher and social activist Shahidul Alam was released on November 15. The veteran photojournal­ist had been arrested on August 5 following an interview with Al Jazeera in which he had criticized the government’s violent response to popular protests against poor road safety. This touched a nerve in Nepal as well, where Alam has helped many aspiring photojour­nalists to get proper training and establish themselves.

Earlier, Alam had been refused bail five times. Now that he is free, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam says his office would lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking a stay order on the bail, according to media reports.

The award-winning photojour­nalist, whose photographs have appeared in The New York Times and National Geographic, had been accused of violating Section 57 of Bangladesh’s Information and Com­munication Technology Act. Section 57 has in recent times been widely criticized for restricting freedom of expression and for leading to scores of arrests. The case against him is still under investigation and if convicted, the 63-year-old Alam, who also has a PhD in chemistry from University of London, could face between seven and 14 years in prison, a prospect that makes his supporters in Nepal shudder.

Not just in Nepal. International organizations like the Lucie Foun­dation, Amnesty International, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and Index on Censorship, to name a few, had each issued strong statements against his arrest. As had Nobel Lau­reates Amartya Sen and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The 102 days of his detention was also a somber occasion for Nepali photojournalists, who had marked the first 100 days by photo­graphing themselves with his card­board cutouts. November 15 was thus a day to rejoice. But they also know that Alam’s battle for justice is far from over.

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Free at last

 

The support for detained Bangla­deshi photojournalist Shahid­ul Alam was strong in Nepal. Photojournalists, media personnel and activists here thus joined the online #FreeShahidulAlam cam­paign with gusto. His supporters in Nepal even picketed outside the Bangladesh Embassy in Kathmandu and from the day of his detention, they had been organizing various other forms of protests. On October 26, Alam was awarded the Photo Kathmandu Award of Excellence during a month-long photography exhibition. Alam has been visiting Nepal since the mid-1990s and many profession­al photojournalists consider him an important figure. “Shahidul da has played a pivotal role in nurturing photojournalism in Nepal since its early days,” says senior photojour­nalist Bikas Rauniyar, recalling his first interaction with Alam in the mid-1990s. “We were just starting then, had no formal education or training and no resources whatsoev­er. That is when we met him.”

At the meeting Alam informed the assembled photojournalists, including Rauniyar, who had only just started in his career, about a free photography course in Dhaka. “So Raj Bhai Suwal, who is now a renowned photographer in Nepal, and I, accepted the offer and went to Dhaka for the three-week training.”

In their own reckoning the train­ing did the duo a world of good. Lat­er, Alam would provide many other Nepali photojournalists opportuni­ties to work with international pho­tographers and learn from them. Rauniyar recalls a time after the formation of the National Forum of Photo Journalists when the media personnel in Nepal wanted to orga­nize a World Press Photo event. The WPP exhibition would be expen­sive. “Since Shahidul da was the first jury member in WPP from our region, he got the fees waived for us,” Rauniyar says. “Thus we suc­cessfully organized the three-week exhibition in 2002 and many local photographers got a chance to learn vital skills.”

Personally, Rauniyar finds Alam warm, friendly, genuine and empa­thetic. “He is like an elder brother,” he says. “Thus I address him as Sha­hidul da.” On Alam’s detention, Rau­niyar is of the view that he was only exercising his freedom of speech, his constitutional right. “The Article 57 levied on him was a draconian and undemocratic clause,” Rauniyar says. “They misused the article to arrest him.”

Another photojournalist Sailendra Kharel remembers Alam as someone with an honest smile, warm hug and charismatic personality. “I first met him during the Ladai Ma Janta photo exhibition that was held at the Nepal Art Council in 2006,” he recalls. “I would meet him again in 2009 in Dhaka at Chobi Mela V, a photo exhi­bition he founded in 1999.” Kharel’s photos on Nepal’s conflict was the only solo exhibit from Nepal at the Dhaka event, in what proved to be a huge boost to his fledgling career in photography.

When asked if the photojournal­ists in Nepal get to exercise more freedom than those in other coun­tries in the region, Kharel replies, “I started my career in 2005 when the country was under the grip of a civil war. I had to report from Nepalgunj and other conflict-hit areas. Those were tough times. But Nepal has progressed a lot in terms of press freedom,” he adds. In the case of Alam, Kharel felt that justice would soon be done because the world was watching and “People are not idiots.”

While his photos have been acclaimed the world over, Alam is also popular as an educator. He set up the Drik Picture Library in 1989 and Pathshala South Asian Insti­tute of Photography (later Pathshala South Asian Media Institute) in 1998, both in Dhaka, from which hun­dreds of students have graduated.

“Dr Alam is a visiting faculty in our college and our college also has a partnership on photography, media and communication training with his institutions,” says Man­ju Mishra, Chairperson of College of Journalism and Mass Com­munication (CJMC). “I am really impressed by Alam’s dynamic, inno­vative and creative personality,” says Mishra, who was also a part of the ‘Free Shahidul Alam’ movement in Nepal.

“Dozens of Nepali photographers have studied at Alam’s Pathshala and he has played a key role in the development of photojournalism in Nepal,” says Nayan Tara Gurung Kakshapati, the founding director of photo.circle and someone who has nurtured countless photographers in Nepal. “I met him around 10 years ago, before we started photo.circle. He has been encouraging from the start. Nepali photographers have not only studied at his institutions but also gotten internships and paid positions in international media through him,” she says.

Alam, she says, includes Nepal in almost every international proj­ect and has arranged for student exchange programs for Nepali pho­tographers in Norwegian and Aus­tralian universities. It helps that “Alam is open and accessible to all budding photographers.”

From protesting on social media to hitting the streets, Nepali photo­journalists were one in their support of Shahidul Alam. But the Bangla­deshi government under the ruling Awami League was unmoved for long. Alam’s release comes with­in a week of Bangladesh’s Minis­ter for Cultural Affairs, Asaduz­zaman Noor, speaking at the Dhaka Lit Fest, assuring that the contro­versial imprisonment would be “resolved soon”. For his countless supporters in Nepal and around the world that day could not have come soon enough.