THE government鈥檚 commitment to protect press freedom rings hollow as attacks on journalists have continued and journalists are made to work in an environment of growing threat, fear and insecurity. Ain O Salish Kendra recorded 94 incidents of torture, harassment and intimidation of journalists committed by government employees, leaders of the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations and other political parties in January鈥揂pril. Of the 292 reported attacks on journalists in 2023, in 38 cases, perpetrators were affiliated to the ruling party. On March 22, a reporter of the Daily Samayer Alo was assaulted by activists of the Government Titumir College unit of the Chhatra League and the perpetrators remain at large with anticipatory bail from the High Court. Meanwhile, cases were filed agaisnt 451 journalists, as the Centre for Governance Studies reported, under the Digital Security Act (repealed in August 2023), and 255 of them faced the cases for their journalistic activities. It is, therefore, not surprising that Bangladesh鈥檚 position in the World Press Freedom Index has progressively declined. In the most recent Press Freedom Index by Reporters without Borders, Bangladesh ranked in the 163rd position out of 180 countries while its position was the 152nd in 2021.
In 2009鈥�2020, as rights organisation Odhikar says, at least 15 journalists were presumably targeted for their role as journalists and killed, but none has so far meted out justice. The rights group also reports that more than 1,024 journalists were assaulted in the period. Legal proceedings in all these cases are going on at a snail鈥檚 pace, leaving the aggrieved journalist community and families of the victims disappointed. The failure to complete the investigation of the murders of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi explains the public disappointment. Since the murder of the journalist couple in February 2012, the court has extended the deadline for the submission of the investigation report 107 times. Violence against journalists and legal harassment are not the only a hindrance to the freedom of the press, but the government also often issues orders hindering journalist鈥檚 access to information, as evident in the central bank鈥檚 recent decision to impose restrictions on journalists鈥� entry into its headquarters. The approval of media outlets on political considerations has tightened political control over the press to the extent that the dominant trend in journalism has become more about serving interests of the ruling quarters and the corporate sector. The declining labour standards in the media industry and constant violations of labour laws have also hindered the growth of journalism as a profession.
The government must, therefore, ensure an unhindered production and distribution of good journalism to reclaim information as public good. It must end the culture of impunity to ensure an enabling political environment in which the journalist community can perform without fears. The journalist community at large must work against the growing journalistic trend that has been more as the mouthpiece of the ruling party than speak for their own rights and work towards reclaiming the historic tradition of public interest journalism.