CALCUTTA India, Dec. 12, Reuter: Bangladesh on Saturday expelled a visiting correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) a few hours after it said it was closing down the organization’s operations in Dhaka, Indian sources said in Calcutta ‘The sources said Phil Jones. A British national, was escorted by a Bangladeshi intelligence official from his hotel and put on a plane to Calcutta Jones could not be immediately reached in the eastern Indian port city for comment.
In the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, the authorities said they were closing down the BBC operation there The official BSS news agency, quoting an official announcement, said the government had decided to close all BBC operations because of its “continuing hostile and tendentious propaganda ‘against Bangladesh which is tantamount to sedition”,
President Hossain Mohammad Ershad, a General who has ruled Bangladesh since taking power in 4 bloodless military coups in 1982, ordered a state of emergency and reporting restrictions last month.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 18, 1987
