One of the biggest, most nefarious accomplishments of the past Awami League government during their decade and a half of misrule has been its silencing of the free press which not only resulted in the censorship of any and all criticism of the government but also led to the wider public’s gradual erosion of trust over the press itself.
The interim government has long held its stance on a vibrant media landscape being important to reestablishing democracy, yet we have not seen any actionable changes which would benefit media professionals. To this end, it is heartening to see the Media Reform Commission finally gearing up to codify the safety and security of journalists at a policy level while also including factors such as financial security and labour protections as well.
According to reports, the Media Reform Commission is planning to amend at least 32 laws which it says gets in the way of press freedom, also revealing its plans to hold a national media survey encompassing close to 50,000 households in order to gauge the wider public’s levels of trust in the media.
This is certainly a welcome move, and while the media landscape has indubitably improved since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s government, there are still fears over the culture of stifling honest journalism being perpetuated by future governments. Indeed, even under the current interim government, we have seen journalists become embroiled in farcical legal cases, reporters having their media accreditation revoked without any precedence, and to say nothing of the lack of security that is still inherent with the profession more so with the prevailing law and order discrepancies.
These are all issues that any new legal provisions will need to address.
