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Press Freedoms and
Journalism: Status analysis
Written by Mr. Ataur
Rahman
General Secretary
Bangladesh Journalists
rights' Forum-BJRF |
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The freedom of press is a
fundamental right to every
citizen of Bangladesh. The
fundamental rights being
guaranteed by the
fundamental law of the land
with some restrictions, no
organ of the state,
executive, legislature of
judicial can act in
contravention of such
rights. Any Act which is
repugnant to such rights
must be void. The liberty of
the press is essential to
the nature of Free State.
Every free man has an
undoubted right to lie what
sentiments he pleads before
the public, to forbid this
is to destroy the freedom of
the press. But this freedom
is being hindered due to the
scope of use of the word
government and other
employed terms bearing
manifold interpretation in
the related laws. The
authorities empowered to
implement the related laws
taking the opportunity of
diverging interpretation of
the terms and the use of the
word 'Govt.' is prone to act
for Wrongful gain and
sometimes for malicious
purpose. Article 7 of our
constitution ensures that
all powers of the Republic
belong to the people. In our
country democratic
Government is exercising
powers through the persons
elected by the people and
such a government claims
their transparency and
accountability. Thus by such
constitutional provisions
every citizen of the country
has the right to know about
every step taken by the
Government in details for
transparency and
accountability of the
activities of the persons in
the government. So to ensure
the freedom of press it is
absolutely necessary to
avoid the scope of such
interpretation by employment
for terms bearing single
interpretation for which it
has been employed. It is
also necessary that there
should be an Act in clean
terms and words providing
the right of the citizen to
information without any
scope to affect the security
of the state and friendly
relations with foreign
countries. It is we known
that much has been said and
worked out about freedom of
press and right to
information yet more
activities need to be
performed to achieve the
goal. In the meantime our
law commission has submitted
draft law to the Government
on the subject, but the same
has not yet been enacted as
law. so attempt should be
taken for enactment of the
draft law and necessary
amendment/ repeal of the
words and phrases of the
present law in force which
are inconsistent with the
draft and creating hindrance
to carry on the activities
of press without
apprehension and derogating
the reputation of the
persons related to press for
creating environment of a
democratic and social state.
Bangladesh is one of the
most dangerous and violent
countries in South Asia for
journalists. The risks are
on the increase day by day
with harassment, torture,
and arrest and death threats
for news reports and
opinions which expose the
truth. Local journalists say
they are increasingly under
threat for reporting on
political violence, graft,
and organized crime, but
that the main cause of
brutality against the press
in Bangladesh is pervasive
corruption. The professional
rights and freedom of
journalists are being curbed
frequently now either by
laws or by other restraints
imposed by the government.
Six journalists were killed
from May 2004 to April 2005
and 675 received death
threats, 421 tortured, 143
harassed in 290 incidents of
press bashing, 22 were
Arrested while another 95
were threatened and 85
injured. In addition, cases
were filed against 105
journalists despite these
risks and challenges, more
and more qualified and
competent youths are joining
the profession of
journalism, with the
conviction that journalism
is a noble profession.
Simultaneously, big
companies in the country are
investing large some of
money in media sector.
Within the last four years
the print media has been
enormously upgraded in line
with the growing demand of
the readers. Electronic
media are also flourishing
in the country. Besides the
state-owned television,
three private televisions
are in the air now. Another
four companies are trying to
get licenses to install
private TV stations. In
another move to restrict the
freedom of the press, the
High Court Division of the
Supreme Court of Bangladesh
on 22 March 2005 convicted
seven journalists on the
charge of contempt of court
for exposing the allegedly
fake qualifications of a
High Court judge. Samaresh
Baiddya, reporter and
columnist of the Bengali
daily Bhorer Kagaj was fined
and sentenced to two months'
rigorous imprisonment, and
five others fined. They are
two editors of national
dailies, two publishers and
two reporters. The
newspapers have stood by the
accuracy of the articles and
plan to appeal their
convictions in the Supreme
Court. In the context of
repressive laws on contempt
of court and defamation, the
Right to Information becomes
a crucial legal instrument.
The Right to Information has
been voiced over several
decades, but the state
machinery has taken its own
time to respond. The Law
Commission had produced a
Working Paper on the
Proposed Right to
Information Act in 2002 and
circulated that paper to
some selected organization
in 2003. An analysis of the
proposed Act should be
preceded by comparable
contents of right to
information as found in
relevant international
instruments ratified by
Bangladesh. According to Dr.
Asif Nazrul, Associate
Professor, Department of
Law, University of Dhaka,
the Draft Law may be
welcomed with caution as a
positive initiative to
advance freedom of
expression and information
in Bangladesh. But, unless
it supersedes existing
secrecy legislation,
provides for extensive
education and training,
protects the whistleblowers,
establish independence of
the relevant appeals
tribunals and,above all,
unless an enabling political
culture developed, the Act
could contribute little to
promote right to freedom of
information.
According to the statistics
there are 7750 journalists
working in different
newspapers and news agencies
in Bangladesh. Among them
2800 are full-time
journalists. Working
conditions of journalists
continue to be abysmal.
Although the sixth Wage
Board Award was announced
this year , most of the
newspapers are still now
reluctant to implement it.
Despite the Newspaper
Employees (Condition and
Services) Act, 1974
formulated, professional
journalists are working
without wages and in
extremely adverse
conditions. The division in
the main journalists’ union
weakened the struggle
against the irregularities.
Government advertisement
policies are also hindering
the development of the
newspaper industry.
Newspapers which publish
news about corruption or
misdeeds of the government,
find themselves without
advertisements, thus making
it difficult to continue
publication. In January
2005, during the debate on
the Sixth wage Board, owners
of the newspaper industry
said that their main concern
was the justification for a
new board when 98 percent
newspapers are unable to pay
the earlier announced
awards, especially by the
Fifth Wage Board. They said
“In the era of free market
economy the government has
no right to impose the pay
scale of a particular
industry. This will amount
to discrimination and
interference with press
freedom and independence of
media institutions.” On the
other hand, the unions of
journalists and workers in
their joint statement said
such a statement showed
disrespect for the existing
laws. They criticized the
owners of the government
media-list newspapers;
saying only 10 out of 500
newspapers have implemented
the wage board award. They
have been taking all sorts
of advantages from the
government, but have not
implemented the wage board
award. Free flow of
information remains
important because that
ensures people's right to
know. Unless you know the
facts, unless you are aware
what is happening in the
society, you can not express
properly what you want to
say. In this context, access
to information is very
important to guarantee
freedom of press. But in our
country such access to
information is restricted by
the Official secrets Act.
During the British rule the
official secrets act was
promulgated to hide misdeeds
of the colonial rulers.
Unfortunately, this law is
in force until today in
Bangladesh, India and Sri
Lanka. It is not unique in
South Asian countries only.
Such laws are there in many
other countries to obstruct
journalists to get
information. The
International Federation of
Journalists conducted a
survey that revealed that
bureaucrats in almost all
countries try to hide facts.
But the code of ethics of
journalism states that “it
is the duty of the press to
carry information on what
goes in the society and
uncover and disclose matter
which ought to be subjected
to criticism. In a
fundamental sense
information in the hands of
the government belongs to
the public having been
collected through use of
taxpayers money but under
cover of official secrets
act the officials always
hide the truth and the
normal flow of information
is obstructed.
According to the Ministry of
Information, 2219 newspapers
and periodicals, including
378 national and regional
dailies, are being published
in the country.
Additionally, Five news
agencies including Bengali
News service Bangladesh
Sangbad Sangtha (BSS), a
state-owned national news
agency, and the privately
owned national news agency-
the United News of
Bangladesh (UNB), Annandha
Bangla Sangbad (ABS)
National News Bangladesh (NNB)
and BD News24 are operating
in the country. At present,
Bangladesh also has a
state-owned television and
three satellite television
stations in the private
sector. The electronic media
that has much more influence
than that of the print media
is not fully free in our
country until now. The
private satellite channels
enjoy or exercise some
amount of freedom in
telecasting news. I must
admit that sometimes their
presentation of news is
better that that of the
print media. But hardly 10
to 15 per cent of the
viewers can see the Channel
TV because of the technical
limitations. But
unfortunately, the state
owned electronic media both
radio and television that
cover the whole country are
spoon-fed. How influential
the television that cover
the whole country are
spoon-fed. How influential
the television can be was
felt when ETV was freely
telecasting the domestic
news. The channel has been
closed due to legal fault.
The sky is now open. There
has been cultural invasion
through channel television
from other countries. There
are accusations that the
impact of such cultural
invasion by media is
becoming disastrous for our
society. So here again many
people are advocating for
reasonable restrictions to
stop moral degradation in
our society. Even in
American society this issue
is debated seriously
especially after some cases
of shooting is schools by
teenagers who are inspired
by violent scenes in
television. The media in
Bangladesh face restrictive
laws enacted between 1876
and 1991 which restrain
freedom of expression. These
laws control private media,
news agencies, radio,
television, theatre,
audio-video materials, VCR
rental and video copying,
cinema, advertising, and
telecommunication. The
disunity among of
journalists and journalists
unions has been continuing
to the harm of the country
and the community has main
reason for repression of
journalists. Recognizing the
need for unity and to
organize, journalists have
formed associations to press
for their rights. There are
25 journalists’ related
organizations in Dhaka, and
several national networks.
Following the bomb blast
that led to the tragic death
of Shaikh Belaluddin, bureau
chief of Daily Sangram on
February 11, journalists
overcoming narrow political
allegiances came together.
Editors, leaders of the
journalists unions and
senior journalists at a
meeting on February 12
decided to take a strong
stand to ensure the safety
and security of media
persons across the country.
This unity is indeed
heartening, and likely to
present a cohesive challenge
to the repression of
journalists and attacks on
press freedom.
Freedom of press, right to
know, freedom of speech and
access to information are
the hallmark of an undiluted
democracy. Media's freedom,
democracy and good
governance are as
inseparable as the human
rights sere. So a free media
is essential for building a
society with moral, ethical
and democratic values that
impact our society and
culture largely. The
information, in general, and
the media, in particular,
can also be decisive by
tipping the social and
political balance on issues
of authoritarianism and
democracy, autocracy and
theocracy, development and
parasitic consumption, war
and peace, conflict
prevention, conflict
resolution and
reconciliation in post
conflict situation. If the
Media can function freely in
a democratic atmosphere, the
society is benefited and
civilization gets a boost
from such freedoms.
Bangladesh Journalists
rights form – BJRF working
to create greater unity
healthy atmosphere in the
field of journalism of
Bangladesh.
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