One year after the July uprising, the country鈥檚 news media still continued to experience political and corporate pressure and a lack of financial and legal protection, discussants expressed their concerns on Wednesday.
Participating in a dialogue hosted by the Centre for Governance Studies in Dhaka, they said that self-regulation was crucial for checking disinformation but alone it was insufficient in an environment of harassment, censorship and institutional inertia.
鈥楨ven if the current government issues ordinances or forms an independent media commission, there is no certainty unless the politicians promise that they will legitimise the reforms in the next parliament,鈥� warned Professor Ali Riaz, also the vice-chair of the National Consensus Commission, while addressing the event the guest of honour.
He said that internal divisions among journalists and partisan reporting had eroded the very definition of journalism.
He questioned why journalists did not hold politicians accountable for their silence on the constitutional guarantee of media freedom in the one year of the fall of the Awami League regime.
Riaz observed that journalists could have come together to establish a unified framework for media standards, grievance redress and self-regulation, instead of relying solely on the interim government for solutions.
Bangla-language tabloid Manab Zamin editor-in-chief Matiur Rahman Chowdhury expressed his frustration over negligence to the recommendations from the Media Reform Commission.
CGS president Zillur Rahman opened the session by saying that although the interim government formed several committees to ensure autonomy for state media and reform, the Press Council, the initiatives seemed futile.
Despite directives from the chief adviser, media reform had seen little real progress, he added.
However, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha chief editor and managing director Mahbub Morshed criticised the Media Reform Commission, saying that the commission did not consider the aspect of legal protection for journalists, let alone financial security.
Dhaka Tribune executive editor Reaz Ahmed observed that the authorities regulating the news media still maintained the legacy of the regimes that had undermined the media freedom.
Bangladesh Pratidin executive editor Manjurul Islam said that freedom of the country鈥檚 media was now being compromised in various ways.
鈥楢 kind of pressure has emerged figuring out who belongs to whom, who needs to be removed, who needs to be included,鈥� he said.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party media cell member Mahmuda Habiba said unregulated virtual media would become a threat to journalism while freelance journalist Kazi Jesin urged for regulation on uncensored content pervading the social media.
Jesin suggested that an independent media commission was crucial rather than the Press Council.
Supreme Court lawyers Shihab Uddin and Sonia Zaman Khan discussed the existing media regulatory laws and suggested their reforms.
Senior lawyer at the Supreme Court and Gano Forum presidium member Subrata Chowdhury, Dhaka University鈥檚 department of mass communication and journalism professor SM Shameem Reza, Maasranga Television editor-in-chief Rezwanul Haque Raja, among others, also spoke.
