Journalists covering different universities for the country鈥檚 media outlets should get fair wages and security, speakers said at a discussion on Sunday.
The discussion was organised by Bangladesh Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad in honour of teachers, journalists, rights activists, social media organisers and civil society members who played active role during the July uprising in 2024.
The journalists who stood on the frontlines during the 2024 mass uprising by documenting bloodied classmates, braving bullets and baton charges, and exposing state repression through their lenses and reports remained ignored a year later, journalists and teachers said.
They continue to be denied of minimum wages and job security, they said.
The discussion titled 鈥楽ome Still Keep Their Word鈥� was held at the Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium of Dhaka University鈥檚 Faculty of Social Sciences.
Mosaddekur Rahman, former president of the Jahangirnagar University Press Club said, 鈥榃hile the so-called conscience of the nation stayed silent, it was the campus journalists who got beaten, stood under petrol bomb attacks and yet captured the resistance. But after the uprising, no one stood by them.
鈥榃e don鈥檛 demand recognition. We demand a minimum wage, security and professional rights,鈥� he added.
Dhaka University Journalists鈥� Association president Mohiuddin Muzahid Mahi said, 鈥楾here is no pay structure, no security, no benefits. And yet, after the uprising, the information ministry鈥檚 advisers did not think about campus journalists.鈥�
Imran Mahfuz, literary editor at The Daily Star Bangla, said, 鈥楨ven during the 1971 Liberation War, university halls were not shut down. But during the 2024 uprising, halls were closed, and brutal killings took place on the campus.
鈥楳y campus journalist brothers brought that barbarity to the world鈥檚 attention. Yet they are still denied of fair pay,鈥� he added.
Rahman Sun, professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, Ridwan Hasan, teacher at the Jatrabari Jamiya Islamia Madania Madrassah, and Mohammad Ali Mazed, an AFP journalist, also spoke on the occasion.
At the end of the event, Ganatantrik Chhatra Sangsad spokesperson Ashrefa Khatun handed over crests to university journalists and contributors to the mass uprising.