Bangladesh news channel off air

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6982409.stm

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Bangladesh's only private 24-hour news channel has gone off air, just days after being warned not to broadcast footage of anti-government riots.

CSB television said officials from the telecommunications regulator visited with security personnel to close it.

CSB says it has to supply information about its frequency allocation before it can resume broadcasting.

But a senior CSB official told the BBC he was not convinced by the reason. The authorities have yet to comment.

Accused

The channel, which only began broadcasting earlier this year, went off air about 1800 local time (1200 GMT) on Thursday evening.

In a statement, CSB company secretary Mohammad Ali Zakir said four senior officials from the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) visited the station and shut it down.

"They came up with members of the security forces and stopped our transmissions. The BTRC has asked us to explain doubts over the allocation of our frequency within seven days."

He said that during this time the channel had been told its transmissions would be stopped.

CSB was warned about showing pictures of student riots by the Interior Ministry on 23 August.

It was accused of broadcasting provocative news, which the ministry said was endangering national security and public safety.

Other state-run channels did not carry footage of the unrest.

The student protests in Dhaka quickly spread into three days of violent demonstrations across Bangladesh demanding an end to emergency rule.

The violence posed the most serious challenge to the emergency government since it took power six months ago.