Bangladesh officials wanted clashes kept off television during July uprising. Leaked call details how they planned to do it.

A leaked telephone conversation presented to a tribunal has detailed how senior officials in the former Awami League government allegedly sought to suppress television coverage of violence during Bangladesh’s 2024 July uprising.

Prosecutors submitted the recording in the July killings case involving former road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader and six co-defendants.

In the recording, former member of Parliament Mohammad A. Arafat, who served as state minister for information and broadcasting in the fifth Sheikh Hasina government, tells Quader that television channels were threatened with shutdowns if they broadcast footage or photographs of clashes.

“Today, I told them that if they show any video footage or photos of clashes and fights today, they will be declared as ‘Enemies of the State’ and will be shut down for life. I have threatened them today,” Arafat said.

Arafat also said Bangabandhu Satellite authorities had been placed on standby and given blanket permission to immediately cut transmissions when channels showed images of clashes.

“Do not send me any message for permission. I have given you blanket permission,” he said.

The conversation also describes efforts to shape the government’s portrayal of the demonstrations. Arafat told Quader that protesters would be divided into groups, with one faction labeled “militants.”

“From now on, this will be our narrative,” Arafat said.

1,400 people, most of them student protesters, were killed during the July Revolution in 2024. Tribunal proceedings against Quader and the other defendants remain ongoing as prosecutors continue presenting their case.