Ensuring Media Safety in Poll-Bound Bangladesh

Addressing the nation on live television on 5 August 2025, Bangladesh’s interim government head Dr Muhammad Yunus announced that the south Asian nation will go for 13th Jatiya Sansad polls by the first half of February next year (Bangladesh election authority later specified first week of February for the national event), where he also opined that a key condition for a thriving democracy is the freedom of the press. 

Marking the anniversary of the 2024 July-August mass uprising (that paved the way for installing a lone Bangladeshi Nobel laureate as chief adviser of the caretaker government after dethroning Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina), Dr Yunus exclaimed that, looking at the past days, it becomes clear that the biggest and earliest obstacle to free journalism was the government itself. Delivered in the native Bengali language, well well-known ‘banker to the poor’ reminded how 5 August last year witnessed the culmination of a massive uprising of students and common Bangladeshi nationals in the Muslim dominated country of 170 million people against the fascist regime in Dhaka.

Disclosing various initiatives for reforms in various sectors affecting the lives of Bangladeshi citizens, Dr Yunus stated that his government had taken several steps to remove all the obstacles to open up the space for criticism. Now, anyone, whether through mainstream or social media, can freely criticise the government. Even state-run media can now openly criticise the authorities, something that was unthinkable in the recent past. 

To ensure accountability among journalists, the government has restructured the Press Council of Bangladesh and initiated various types of training to empower journalists so that they can counter disinformation. Mentioning the Digital Security Act (later replaced by the Cyber Security Act), which was eventually weaponised by the past autocratic regime against media persons, Dr Yunus pronounced its repeal, and hence all cases filed against journalists under this law were declared withdrawn.

However, the ground situation in the populous country remains disturbing while taking into consideration of legal and social safety of media persons. The recent murder of Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin, who was associated with the Mymensingh-based newspaper Dainik Pratidiner Kagoj, reflected the gory picture of media freedom and safety in Bangladesh. Tuhin (40) was hacked to death by a group of assailants on the evening of 7 August at a local tea stall in Gazipur locality near Dhaka. According to the preliminary police findings, the scribe was targeted solely because of his filming a crime in progress relating to an extortion bid by some goons. The captured CCTV footage from a nearby building indicated that Tuhin sustained serious injuries and died on the spot. The police later recovered the body of Tuhin, who left behind his wife  Mukta Akhter, two sons and many other close relatives.

Next evening, the police arrested four individuals (Md Ketu Mizan, his wife Parul Akhter alias Golapi, Md Swadhin, Sumon and Al-Amin) in connection with the murder of Tuhin, who was popular for media reporting on public interest issues. Later two more (Shah Jalal, Foysal Hassan) were arrested. Gazipur also witnessed another incident of journo-attack on 6 August, when Anwar Hossain of Dainik Bangladesher Alo newspaper was physically assaulted by a group of miscreants in broad daylight. Hossain was reportedly investigating an extortion bid by some individuals from local vendors and auto-rickshaw drivers in his locality. Earlier, another journalist (Khandaker Shah Alam) was killed by a released prisoner (who believed Alam’s reporting in  Dainik Matrijagat finally put him in jail) on 25 June in Dhaka’s Nabinagar locality.

“Attacks on journalists are not limited to physical harm (in Bangladesh). According to a recent Transparency International Bangladesh report, from August 2024 to July 2025, as many as 496 journalists were harassed, 266 were implicated in murder cases related to the July Uprising, and three were killed while on duty. During the same period, eight newspaper editors and 11 news chiefs from private television channels were dismissed, and at least 150 journalists were terminated,” said an editorial of The Daily Star, a prominent English newspaper, published from Dhaka. It also added that following the fall of Hasina's autocratic regime, public expectations were high for a freer, less politically influenced media, but the current administration has yet to take visible steps to ensure press freedom.

Days back, the New Delhi-based Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG)  released a report claiming that a dramatic escalation in attacks, legal harassment, and official intimidation of journalists and media houses were recorded in Bangladesh since August 2024. Made public on the first anniversary of Hasina’s ouster from Dhaka, the report added that till July 2025, no less than  878 journalists were targeted (431 scribes faced physical attacks or criminal threats) under the reign of Dr Yunus-led interim government. RRAG director Suhas Chakma also revealed that nearly  195 criminal cases were filed against journalists over the past year. State institutions like Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, which was not earlier misused against media personalities, had issued notices to 107 journalists over the past year, stated Chama, adding that at least  167 journalists were also denied press accreditation, many of whom allegedly maintained affiliations  with the Hasina regime.

Besides homegrown media organizations, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) also called on the authorities ‘to bring to justice as soon as possible those responsible for these heinous crimes (murder of Tuhin and assault on Hossain), presumed members of armed gangs, and to take measures to guarantee the safety of journalists’. The Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) also demanded swift actions from the government in Dhaka to apprehend the perpetrators. PEC president Blaise Lempen, while condemning the crimes, exclaimed ‘it was pathetic how a journalist had to lose his life for journalistic works to expose the criminals’. He urged the interim regime to ensure the safety of journalists as Bangladesh prepares for national elections early next year.

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