Won’t be bogged down, says Prothom Alo editor as Bangladesh’s leading dailies come under attack

Protesters staged sit-in outside Prothom Alo’s office in Dhaka and vandalised its office in Rajshahi. Another leading daily in Bangladesh, The Daily Star, has also come under attack.

Heavy police deployment outside Prothom Alo office on 25 November, 2024 | By special arrangement

New Delhi: For two days now, Bangladesh has been witnessing protests against two of its most prominent newspapers, Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, with protesters accusing them of supporting the previous Sheikh Hasina government, and being “anti-Islam” and “pro-India”.

Protests to demand the boycott and shutdown of both dailies were reported from around the country including from Barisal, Chittagong, Sylhet, and Rajshahi. Protesters accused the newspapers of supporting Hasina’s government and promoting a “pro-India” narrative.

Speaking to ThePrint from Dhaka, Prothom Alo’s executive editor Sajjad Sharif said the protests began a month ago with a few ‘conservative forces’ accusing the newspaper of bias and alleging that it wants the Awami League to be reinstated. The protesters also demanded an apology from the newspaper. 

Calling these allegations ‘baseless’ and ‘absolutely untrue’, Sharif said termed it a case of journalists being attacked simply for doing their jobs. “Be it the Hasina government or even the BNP, we have always been under pressure. But we remained undeterred and pursued honest, authentic, and trustworthy journalism,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nahid Islam, I&B adviser to the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government in Bangladesh, warned that attempts to shut down newspapers or intimidate the press would not be tolerated. “We do not support vandalism or pressure on media outlets,” he reportedly said at a press briefing Monday. “If people have issues with a media outlet, they have the right to express their concerns peacefully. However, we will not allow anyone to use force or intimidation to silence the press,” said Islam.

Sharif confirmed that the interim government has offered protection and deployed police and the Army outside the daily’s offices. He said the interim government has also promised abolition of the draconian Cyber Security Act, to help journalism and press freedom thrive in the country. But Bangladesh is currently at a crossroads and such agitations are done by selected factions in the social sphere ‘to create a sense of fear’ among the people, he said.

“Post the august upheaval, all of us had hoped for a restoration of democracy. In a democratic state, you cannot simply obstruct the distribution of a newspaper. There are other ways to address grievances. This is an act by some members of the social sphere, to intimidate amid a shift in power. But we will not be bogged down,” Sharif told ThePrint.

Meanwhile, The Daily Star put out an editorial condemning the attacks, terming them a “rude awakening for those who expected the culture of intimidation and repression against journalists to recede with the ouster of an autocratic regime”.

“No credible grievances or evidence have been presented to justify these attacks and disruptions. Instead, they appear driven by an agenda to discredit independent media and deter it from fulfilling its watchdog role, exploiting the fluid security situation,” read the editorial.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the protests and called for a swift investigation into the attacks. In a statement, it urged the interim government to protect journalists and ensure their safety, emphasising that while protests should be allowed, media professionals must not be subjected to violence for doing their jobs.

The Editors’ Council in Bangladesh, too, called on the interim government to take strong action against mob justice. In a statement Tuesday, the council, led by president Mahfuz Anam (editor of The Daily Star) and general secretary Dewan Hanif Mahmud (editor of Daily Bonik Barta), made the plea for firm government intervention.

Protesters’ demands: Sacking, apology

The protests targeting media outlets in Bangladesh began in October with calls to besiege Prothom Alo’s head office in Dhaka. While that effort initially failed to gain traction, the protests reignited in late November, when some launched sit-ins and demonstrations outside the newspaper’s head office in Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar.

The protests took a violent turn on 24 November, with law enforcement agencies resorting to use of tear gas to disperse the crowds, The Daily Star reported.

On 25 November, nearly 300 protesters gathered outside the Prothom Alo office in Dhaka, calling for its closure. Security forces struggled to contain the protesters, who had gathered in defiance of government warnings. Next, protests escalated in Rajshahi, where demonstrators vandalised the Prothom Alo office, burning copies of the newspaper and attempting to break into the building. Before that, on Sunday, five individuals were arrested for causing disturbances outside Prothom Alo’s office in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s interim leadership under Muhammad Yunus has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to media freedom, though critics argue that journalists critical of the government still face harassment, arrest, and intimidation.

According to Reporters Without Borders, nearly 140 journalists are facing criminal charges, some for reporting on protests or for their coverage of government actions.

In its 2024 report, RSF said that while there are no independent or Opposition-owned TV news channels in Bangladesh, ‘the country’s two leading dailies, the Bengali-language Prothom Alo and the English-language The Daily Star, manage to maintain a certain editorial independence’. Bangladesh ranks 165 out of 180 in press freedom.

UK-based Investigative journalist and researcher Zulkarnain Saer Khan told ThePrint that while Bangladeshis have long-standing grievances against the two dailies, these fringe protests cannot be construed as any form of curbs on press freedom as the government has thrown its weight behind the two newspapers and has provided all forms of security. 

“Understandably, they are demanding that the two papers’ editors be removed and the owners and editors apologise to the nation for their role in manufacturing consent for the Awami League. While I don’t agree with their methods, I agree with their grievances—I have personally spoken up about their shoddy, manipulative reporting of many incidents. These two papers are by far the most widely circulated dailies in their respective mediums and it is about time they get their journalism and editorial policies in order,” he said.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)