I’ve been a journalist for more than 36 years. I started working for international media in 1988 and continued until my 2015 appointment in London, with a few brief stints in Bangladesh’s local media interspersed throughout.
There is a grave misconception about Bangladesh’s media, or rather our press freedom, to the outside world, which is largely influenced by opposition political groups, their followers/activists, diplomats and NGOs.
Reports from organisations such as Amnesty International are mostly based on hear-say and secondary information. Not facts. Even their networking members in individual countries have problems when it comes to being objective. They call up individual journalists, NGO workers, and diplomats without knowing their backgrounds before accepting any information. I can say this from my own experience.
It is indeed sad that our political groups never hesitate to malign their own motherland in the name of politics. They forget that it is their country too, and, instead of talking about what they did for the press during their rule, they keep on harping about their opponent.
Not because I am the government spokesman in London, but, ethically, I find it hard to accept lies handed out by organisations such as Amnesty International or the like when the country is the most stable it has been in years and where there is plenty of scope for a vibrant media.
Facts in numbers
The number of TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers which received licenses under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government is unprecedented in the country’s history.
That is a fact.
How can the press be gagged or individually targeted for writing the truth in the age of the internet?
I have suffered enough censorship at the hands of governments as well as senior colleagues.
I blame ourselves first for hurting press freedom by either being censored by superiors or because of self-censorship on various grounds, and that too mostly on partisan lines.
Then came 1991, the year democracy was returned to Bangladesh. Very soon the journalist community was divided from a united front against the autocracy. I saw the gradual emergence of self-censorship, partisan reporting, and attempts to change historical facts.
How can the press be gagged or individually targeted for writing the truth in the age of the internet?
Revisionist history
My first experience of imposed historical twist was about the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
I was never an activist of any political party, but, of course, I have my ideological stances and family influence.
I wrote in my report, for the international wire service I was working for, that “Bangladeshis were today remembering the country’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”
My colleague said, since many did not accept him as the “founding father” I should have written “Bangladesh’s First President only.”
He was the Father of the Nation for the entire country from 1971 and suddenly he is not -- just because the military ruler of that time had wished so? What a travesty.
Interestingly, BNP leader Tarique Rahman now claims that his father, the late General Ziaur Rahman, was the first president.
We have not, as journalists, hesitated to write against each other to correct our mistakes.
A free country, a free press
The press has suffered immensely due to extreme political division, and anybody criticising the current state from the outside must visit Bangladesh to see first-hand the situation as it is.
There are security and other issues of national interest, which need to be addressed first. Anywhere in the world such matters are dealt with critically. Every country, including Britain, has laws, which have to be followed by the press, but in Bangladesh it is a free-for-all.
The few incidents which occur are mostly given the wrong colour for one reason or the other. Which makes issues far more complex for outsiders to figure out.
The arrest of a scribe for extortion is reflected in partisan angles to hide the real crime. Very few are maybe correct, but the background must be investigated. Freedom of press means writing with responsibility and without bias. Not exploiting that freedom for personal gain.
Let us support all that is good about the press in Bangladesh now and take pride in it, rather than just criticising it for the sake of it. The watchdogs should be careful before maligning the image of a country.
We must respect the hard work that most journalists are doing to uphold freedom of the press by working professionally.
All opinions of senior journalist Nadeem Qadir, now minister (Press) in the Bangladesh, are his own and does not reflect the views of the Bangladesh government or the High Commission in London.
