Haider Ali discussed the media landscape, sources, young students and professionals who were scared to appear before the media after Sheikh Hasina’s controversial election win earlier this year. File | Photo Credit: PTI
On August 19, a group of people reached there. East West Media GroupThe office located in the middle of Dhaka was attacked and vandalised. They also injured a female journalist and threatened people present there. The media house located in Bashundhara area is home to many of Bangladesh’s leading newspapers and TV brands, targeting several media institutions in the past few days. Sheikh Hasina’s This party has been continuously progressing for the last one and a half decade due to its strict attitude towards media and social media policies. Student-led revolt It was believed that this would strengthen civil liberties and this attack was a blow, which was opposed by all sections. Post-Hasina interim administrationThe last fortnight has not been easy for the Bangladeshi media.
The revolution was being broadcast worldwide on August 5, when viewers around the world saw that Ektar TV It had disappeared from YouTube. That afternoon of freedom had a dark side as well and several TV channels were raided by rioters who accused these channels of supporting Hasina. Ektar TVThe office located in Baridhara locality was vandalised, burnt and taken over by the mob. time tv and broke furniture, forcing the channel to stop broadcasting. ATN Bangla A channel located in the heart of the busy Karwan Bazaar was also attacked, although it continued to broadcast throughout the chaotic hours. Within a day, eight channels were attacked and dozens were threatened. Fortunately, the journalists returned.
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In the busy Karwan Bazar, the site of daily protests by workers, students and political activists, is the Rainy Roof restaurant on the 12th floor of a building overlooking a busy intersection below. It was here every night for the past fortnight that professional journalists from major channels and publications met after work and planned a reform against the backdrop of a change of government. They were determined to tell the story of the collapse of government in their country, but were not prepared to die in the process. As a result of the mobilisation of professional journalists from Dhaka’s major channels, media is slowly coming back. Ektar TV And time tv With editorial lines being reinvented and the studio being re-equipped with new monitors and cameras, ‘Dangal’ is back.
“We have been told that we should consider that the previous studio was destroyed in a natural disaster and we are now recovering from that traumatic event,” Ektar TV It was once targeted by mobs because of its alleged reputation of being pro-Hasina.
“I tried to work professionally as a journalist and exposed corruption in the Hasina government and as a result legal cases were filed against me. We survived those tough times and are hoping that the media landscape will see the current era of transition,” said Haider Ali, head of the investigation cell Kaler KanthaA leading newspaper of the Bashundhara Group, which has been targeted by miscreants in the past too, said.
When Mr Ali discussed the media landscape, sources, young students and professionals came up with stories they were afraid to reveal to the media earlier this year, when Ms Hasina won the controversial election. One of the main reasons for not allowing corruption stories to be exposed was the Hasina-led government’s 2018 Digital Security Act, which threatened media freedom, as exposing corruption was considered equivalent to criminal defamation. In the last phase of the Sheikh Hasina government, Bangladesh was pushed into an internet blackout. Despite the blackout, newspapers such as Prothom Alo, Daily Star, Kaler Kantha, new Age, and channels like Jamuna TV And News 24 Bangladesh and the world were informed about the crackdown on students and other militant protesters. After reporting the revolution, the media in Bangladesh, like the rest of the country, is adapting to the new political reality and preparing for a new chapter.