20

Aug

Ensuring Media Safety in Election-bound Bangladesh 

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Nava Thakuria

New Delhi | Monday | 18 August 2025

On the evening of 5 August 2025, Bangladesh’s interim government head Dr Muhammad Yunus took to live television to make a historic announcement. The country, he declared, would hold its 13th Jatiya Sansad (parliamentary) elections in the first week of February 2026, setting the stage for a democratic transition after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime a year earlier.

But beyond the election timeline, what caught national and international attention was Yunus’s emphasis on press freedom as the “key condition for a thriving democracy.” Addressing the nation in Bengali, the 2006 Nobel laureate and “banker to the poor” reminded citizens that on 5 August 2024, it was students and ordinary people—demanding dignity, justice, and truth—who had risen against Hasina’s repressive rule. One year later, Yunus acknowledged bluntly: “The biggest and earliest obstacle to free journalism was the government itself.”

A Reform Agenda

 

Article at a Glance
On 5 August 2025, Bangladesh’s interim leader Dr. Muhammad Yunus announced parliamentary elections for February 2026, highlighting press freedom as vital for democracy after Sheikh Hasina’s fall. His reforms include repealing the draconian Cyber Security Act, restructuring the Press Council, and allowing open criticism of the government. However, ground realities remain grim. Journalists continue to face deadly violence, with recent murders of reporters like Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin underscoring the risks. Transparency International Bangladesh reported 496 cases of harassment and multiple killings in the past year, while RRAG documented 878 targeted journalists under Yunus’s government. International watchdogs like RSF and PEC have urged stronger protections. As Bangladesh prepares for elections, Yunus faces a credibility test: turning promises into real safeguards for journalists. The nation now stands at a crossroads—between genuine democratic revival or slipping back into authoritarian cycles.

 

Since assuming charge as chief adviser of the caretaker government, Yunus has rolled out a reform blueprint that promises to dismantle barriers to free expression. His initiatives include:

•      Repeal of the Digital Security Act (later renamed Cyber Security Act), once weaponised to muzzle critics. All cases filed against journalists under the draconian law have been withdrawn.

•      Restructuring the Press Council of Bangladesh, intended to create an independent watchdog that can both safeguard press freedom and promote accountability.

•      Training programmes for journalists to counter disinformation, with state support.

•      Permission for state-run media to openly criticise authorities, an unimaginable prospect under the old order.

“We have opened the space for criticism,” Yunus said. “Anyone, whether through mainstream or social media, can freely question the government.”

On paper, these reforms signal a break from the past. But on the ground, the picture remains grim.

A Bloody Reality on the Streets

The optimism of official pronouncements collided with harsh reality just two days after Yunus’s speech. On 7 August, journalist Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin, 40, was hacked to death at a tea stall in Gazipur, near Dhaka. His “crime”: filming an extortion racket in progress.

CCTV footage showed Tuhin sustaining fatal injuries as bystanders looked on helplessly. Police later recovered his body, leaving behind his widow Mukta Akhter, two young sons, and grieving relatives. By the next evening, four suspects—including a husband-wife duo—were arrested, with more detentions following.

Tuhin’s murder was not an isolated case. Just a day earlier, Anwar Hossain, a reporter for Dainik Bangladesher Alo, had been beaten in broad daylight while investigating extortion in his locality. In June, Khandaker Shah Alam of Dainik Matrijagat was killed in Dhaka’s Nabinagar area, allegedly by a former prisoner angered over Alam’s earlier reporting.

These cases underscore a chilling reality: while government rhetoric champions press freedom, journalists continue to face deadly threats from criminal gangs, political interests, and even state-linked actors.

Numbers That Speak of Fear

The statistics are alarming. According to Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB):

•      496 journalists were harassed between August 2024 and July 2025.

•      266 reporters were implicated in murder cases tied to last year’s uprising.

•      Three journalists were killed while on duty.

•      Eight editors and 11 TV news chiefs lost their jobs, and at least 150 reporters were terminated.

The Daily Star, Dhaka’s leading English daily, captured the public sentiment: “Following the fall of Hasina’s regime, expectations were high for a freer, less politically influenced media. The current administration has yet to take visible steps to ensure press freedom.”

Adding to the pressure, the New Delhi-based Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) published a report on the first anniversary of Hasina’s ouster. It found that under the Yunus-led interim government:

•      878 journalists were targeted between August 2024 and July 2025.

•      431 journalists faced physical attacks or criminal threats.

•      195 criminal cases were filed against reporters.

•      107 journalists received notices from the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit.

•      167 reporters were denied press accreditation, many allegedly for past links with Hasina’s Awami League.

Suhas Chakma, RRAG’s director, concluded starkly: “Attacks, legal harassment, and official intimidation of journalists have dramatically escalated.”

International Pressure Mounts

The wave of violence has triggered concern beyond Bangladesh’s borders.

•      Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Dhaka to swiftly bring Tuhin’s killers to justice and ensure safety for reporters in the run-up to elections.

•      The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) in Geneva condemned the killings, with its president Blaise Lempen lamenting: “It is pathetic how a journalist had to lose his life simply for exposing criminals.”

Both organisations stressed that protecting journalists is central to Bangladesh’s democratic credibility, especially with elections looming.

A Test of Credibility

As Bangladesh prepares for polls, Dr Yunus faces a credibility test. His administration’s rhetoric on free speech resonates with democratic ideals, but the continuing violence, intimidation, and legal harassment of journalists tell another story.

The government’s legitimacy rests not only on conducting free and fair elections but also on creating an environment where journalists can report without fear of reprisal. With student-led movements still alive and civil society watching closely, Yunus must prove that his reforms are more than symbolic gestures.

Bangladesh stands at a crossroads. The coming months will decide whether the nation of 170 million moves towards a genuine democratic revival or slips back into the familiar cycle of authoritarianism disguised by reformist promises.

For the families of journalists like Tuhin and Alam, the answer cannot come soon enough.( A Gauwhati-based senior journalist, Nava Thakuria is a Bangladesh watcher. He has also won an international award for his work )

 

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