The ex prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina was declared as a “Predator of Press Freedom” by Reporters without Border (RSF), a free media organization in 2021. Bangladesh is declared 165th out of the 180 countries in the press media freedom index by RSF. In these sixteen years of Sheikh Hasina's regime the journalists and media houses were restricted in various ways by the state institutions. Various domestic television channels and newspapers were shut down by the government. Even the foreign media were blocked in the country. The journalists were threatened and harassed by the state forces to speak against the regime. The journalists were forced to broadcast pro-government propagandas. But after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government there is a new hope to fix the news media. And the hope comes with new challenges for the new interim government that has taken oath on 8th August and led by Nobel Laureate Dr. Yunus has to take on.

But before understanding the challenges it is very important to understand how the media was scrutinized by the Hasina regime. The then government had many political tools that were used against the journalists to prevent them from reporting the truth. And the Digital Security Act - 2018 (DSA) is probably one of the worst of them. This draconian law allowed the journalists to be searched and arrested without a warrant. This act criminalizes contents that are defamatory, blasphemy, liable to disturb public order and responsible to spread negative propaganda against the Liberation War and The Father of the Nation. And the punishment is up to 14 years in prison and/or 5 million (60,000 US Dollars) taka fine. According to a research report of Ali Riaz, professor of Illinois State University a total of 1,410 cases have been filed under the DSA between October 2018 to September 2023. And in these cases 4,404 people were accused and 1,519 were arrested, while 29% of them were journalists. In May 2020  cartoonist Kabir Kishore and writer Mushtaq Ahmed were arrested under DSA for posting satirical cartoons and comments criticizing the government. Mushtaq died in prison on 25th February 2021. On 7th January 2024 DSA was replaced by Cyber Security Act (CSA), a poor copy of the DSA.

Ownership of the media is another tool that was used by the government to spread propaganda. Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Shanghbad Shangstha (BSS) are owned by the government and instead of letting them run independently the government directly used them for pro-government propaganda. Even some of the owners of the private media campanies are pro-government. For example Independent Television, one of the renowned television channels, was actually owned by Salman F Rahman who was the adviser of Sheikh Hasina. He was also president of ATCO (Association of Television Channel Owners) which was very supportive of the Awami League regime. Despite everything, if any news channel or newspaper tried to criticize the government they were forced to shut down.

The journalists also faced direct threats and attacks for publishing news. According to Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) at least 4 journalists were killed and 292 other fell victim to attack, arrest, torture, threats and lawsuits. There are also incidents where islamist militant groups have targeted secular journalists. A blogger named Avijit Roy was killed in 2015 by machete wielding assailants. An islamic militant organization named “Ansarullah Bangla Team” claimed responsibility for the attack.

The truth is if we want to flourish democracy in Bangladesh then free media is prerequisite. So, the interim government has a massive challenge to reform the entire scene of journalism within a very short time. This is also a tricky job because free media is not just an institution. It can only exist when all the institutions are reformed combinedly. For example, if you only modify the legal framework but don't provide safety for journalists then no one will report news that may be risky for themselves.

The first thing that this interim government needs to do is abolish the Cyber Security Act. The adviser for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Asif Nazrul has said to take steps to withdraw the false and harassing case filed under CSA. But this is not nearly enough to ensure free media. If the law is there then the harassment will still go on. The Post, Telecommunications and Information and Technology adviser Nahid Islam said, "In our primary discussion, we have agreed that the clauses of the Cyber Security Act that are controversial will have to be reconsidered."  Again there is very good suspicion on how the “reconsideration” would go. The best solution here is to just abolish this law altogether. But right now it is clear that the interim government has no plan to do so.

Another important thing here is how the judicial system looks at the attack and threat on journalism. The threats and attacks on journalists are seen as an isolated incident from their jobs. In addition to that the “shielding laws” for journalists need to be introduced to protect the journalists. Another adviser of the interim government Brigadier Shakhawat Hosaain said that he will shut down the media that will indulge in flattery. While it is true that Bangladeshi media has a history of siding with a particular political party and spreading propaganda for the party, this statement is hugely problematic. The power to shut down the media by the government is the very reason that the media cannot publish the true news. This power needs to be kept in check.

The media company also should run independently and the owners, be it government or the corporates should not be allowed to influence them. There should be strict laws that prevent the owners from restricting funding for the contents they publish. If any owner pulls their funding because the media company is not publishing favorable contents then they should be severely punished. That is also true for government owned platforms. BTV, Bangladesh Betar, BSS all of them are known as pro-state propaganda machines. And the influence of the government should be lessened on these media platforms.

Organizations like ATCO and other journalist unions need to be heavily reformed. Their duties were to protect the media but the Awami League government has taken over these institutions by appointing their loyalists. There are also divisions and fractions within the journalist unions. This government needs to ensure that these organizations collaborate with each other and can protect the journalists. If needed these unions can go against the government. There needs to be a right check and balance between the government and the journalist unions.

There are also concerns of islamic militant groups as they were marginalized in Awami League regime. Now they might resurface and target secular journalists. The government needs to be very hard on these groups and ensure safety for the journalists. The law and reinforcement system have to be very alert if any journalist reports them about any threats. There should also be a specific helpline for journalists so that they can get emergency help from police.

The path to free media still seems to be a long way but without this, establishing democracy is almost impossible. Media empowers people with information and thus ensures people make the right decision in elections. But if the media is not free and information is biased then there is no point in having an election. Even though it is too early to criticize, the interim government has to emphasize more on this issue and take necessary steps.