BANGLADESH has come to be categorised as a ‘crisis’ country in terms of the freedom of expression, as the Global Expression Report 2024 that the UK-based rights organisation Article 19 launched on May 21 says, with a score of 12 out of 100 in the 128th position in a list of 161 countries. Any score between 0 and 19 in the report means a crisis country where the freedom of expression is marked as the worst. Although Bangladesh has advanced by two notches, from the 130th position as ranked in the 2023 report, the score in both the indexes was the same. The 2022 report ranked Bangladesh in the 131st position with a score of 13 among the same number of countries. Article 19 has analysed 25 indicators to make its assessment and the indicators include the freedom of media, religion and academia. The organisation based on the analysis, ranks countries and territories under five categories of crisis, highly restricted, restricted, less restricted and open. Bangladesh first entered the category of crisis countries in 2014 with a score of 16 and has been stuck between scores of 11 and 12 for the past five years. Bangladesh was in the restricted category in 2000 with a score of 44 and moved in to the ‘highly restricted category in 2006 with a score of 39.
Only India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan among the eight South Asian countries are in the ‘crisis’ category, with only Afghanistan, with a score of 2, trailing Bangladesh. This suggests that there are increasing threats to the freedom of expression in Bangladesh, where journalists and media workers suffer brutal attacks and killing by armed groups many of which go uninvestigated and with a few of the incidents ever reaching a trial. As the government formulate repressive legislation to silence and censor dissent in the name of security, civil society keep facing the challenge of fighting threats to the freedom of expression from content restrictions and other censorship. Transparency International Bangladesh says that a culture of fear has been created for media and civil society while the culture of accepting criticism has not developed. Power politics has held the freedom of expression hostage. It has reached such a height that the freedom of expression is even considered an offence. The government appears to be bent on controlling the freedom of expression while in a truly democratic dispensation the government does not impose control on dissenting opinions. The freedom of expression would keep declining as long as the culture of fear, mostly invoked by repressive laws, would continue. The situation is challenging as the freedom of expression is a necessary precursor for a true democratic dispensation. With people living in less freedom of expression, aiming for an effective democratic dispensation is almost impossible.
An improvement in the situation is not for the government to brighten Bangladesh’s image to the outside world. It is primarily about improving the situation on the home ground for a functioning democratic dispensation. The government must, therefore, needs soul-searching and a course correction.
