Four men standing in a row holding protest signs in Dhaka. The man in the centre holds a sign that reads 'JOURNALISM IS NOT CRIME' in red letters. The other signs are written in Bengali, with messages calling for freedom of the press. The protest appears to be taking place outdoors, with trees in the background.

A 2023 demonstration in Dhaka for the release of Shamsuzzaman Shams, a Prothom Alo reporter arrested for an article on rising food prices. The Media Reform Commission created by Bangladesh’s interim government has set out to fix the problems hobbling journalistic freedom, but the tools of repression from the Sheikh Hasina era are still very much intact.IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

The future of Bangladesh’s fragile media freedom

Under Mohammad Yunus’s interim government, a Media Reform Commission has set out to address long-standing problems facing journalists in Bangladesh – but old threats and patterns of control remain

Cyrus Naji was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of St Andrews. From 2022 to 2023, he was a teaching fellow at the Asian University for Women, a private university in Chittagong.

Published on:

08 Apr 2025, 7:57 am

SINCE SHEIKH HASINA was overthrown in August 2024, the Bangladeshi media has entered an uncertain new phase. The biggest threat to the media – Hasina’s dictatorship – may no longer be there, but a climate of repression and self-censorship built up over decades is taking a long time to die. The newspaper editor Mahfuz Anam described the situation as “slippery”, adding that “journalism in Bangladesh has to navigate a very dangerous course, with forces we don’t know.”

A Media Reform Commission recently delivered its report to the chief advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Mohammad Yunus; that report has set out to address long-standing threats to media freedom in Bangladesh. These include inadequate legal protections, monopolistic ownership and a lack of effective regulation. The commission has addressed those conditions, filling the gaps that have historically left journalists vulnerable. It has recommended a comprehensive set of measures, which, if implemented, would go a long way towards ensuring a free press in Bangladesh. It has provided an invaluable blueprint, at least parts of which can be enacted immediately.

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Bangladesh

Sheikh Hasina

media

freedom of expression

Awami League