Bangladeshi TV channel stopped from broadcasting ‘hangman’ series

LONDON - A Bangladeshi television channel has been ordered to stop broadcasting interviews with the country’s most famous hangman over fears that it could frighten children.

The BBC quoted the hangman, who has hanged nine people in his 21 years in prison, as saying that he carried out the hangings to reduce his time in jail.

“Although I did not like to hang anyone in the gallows, I did it to decrease the span of my jail term. For each hanging, I got two months’ exemption from my 30-year jail term,” he added.

He also said that the prison authorities wrote to the private channel, Banglavision, requesting them not to broadcast the programme, which “might affect the tenderness of the children and the mentality of the mass people of the country”.

So far only one part of the series has been broadcast.

The letter wrtten to the TV station from the prison authorities said that it was in the public interest for the programmes not to be broadcast, the report said.

Programmes in Bengali on Banglavision are broadcast in many countries in Europe, the Middle East and the US.

Banglavision Head of News Mostofa Feroz expressed anger over stopping the channel from broadcasting the programme, saying the motive of the programme was not a campaign against capital punishment or in favour of it.

“It was just an offbeat story about the lifestyle of a hangman inside the jail. I do not understand how it breaches the jail code. A released man cannot be stopped from talking to the media - it is against the freedom of media and his freedom of rights,” he added.

The hangman started working as an executioner seven years ago and was trained for the job while serving a 30-year murder sentence - passed down when he was aged only 16 - for murder. (ANI)