Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of freedom of speech for (a) bloggers and (b) other people in Bangladesh.

Our assessment is that the rise in extremist attacks has increased pressure on free speech in Bangladesh. This is one of the reasons that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has named Bangladesh as one of its 30 Human Rights Priority Countries. The UK supports freedom of expression as both a fundamental right in itself and as an essential component of a full range of human rights. Ministers have unequivocally condemned the murders of secular online activists and minority groups, and called for free speech to be protected in Bangladesh. On Monday 25 April, the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire) said that he was deeply saddened by the senseless murders of Xulhaz Mannan, Tanay Fahim and Rezaul Karim Siddique and called for the killers to be brought to justice. On 9 April, following the brutal murder of Nasimuddin Samad, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood) restated the Government’s position that the right to freedom of expression and open debate in Bangladesh must be upheld.