Media and politics

Asif Saleh and Mridul Chowdhury

Published in the Seminar-India on 1 Nov 2009.

THE media scene in Bangladesh has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past forty years. What initially started as an outcome of missionary zeal has now grown into a full-fledged industry, employing a significant number of journalists and plays an important role in the shaping of democracy in Bangladesh. With an increase in the number of distribution channels as a result of significant new investment, the media’s role has expanded in both the print and electronic domains.

Who is ‘Sunita Paul’?

Mashuqur Rahman

Published in the Daily Star on 11 April, 2009.

She holds strongly negative views about Bangladesh, and has published articles maliciously claiming Bangladesh to be anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Semitic.

Where Deshantori ends, Phiriye Ano Bangladesh begins

Mridul Chowdhury  

Published in the Forum (August 2007) 

The writer reflects upon what he learned making the film and in attending screenings of it in several cities across the world

One boat, 42 lives; 17 dead, 25 waiting to die — they have been floating on the sea for about 10 days without food or water. One looks at another as potential “food” and wonders which part of a dead-body may be easier to swallow, while another uses his last breath to look for something sharp enough to cut up a dead-body.

This was the experience that a group of young Bangladeshis had to go through as they undertook an illegal journey in early 2005 to reach Spain.

Weldon’s visit to Bangladesh

Mashuqur Rahman and Tazreena Sajjad

Published in New Age (June 2, 2007)

It was recently reported in the Bangladeshi press that a US security delegation that visited Bangladesh in March had asked President George W Bush to give Bangladesh ‘high priority’ as a strategic partner in US foreign and national security policies. Naturally, it raised some alarm bells among the concerned citizens. However, upon further investigations some interesting facts about Weldon and his interests have emerged and questions remain concerning his recent visit.
The US security delegation, it was reported, included ‘US Congressman Curt Weldon’. Weldon, however, is no longer a United States congressman. He was defeated in the November 2006 US congressional elections by the Democratic Party candidate Joe Sestak. According to press reports in the US, Weldon is currently under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for alleged corruption.

Testing time for Dhaka’s media

Asif Saleh

 Published in Himal SouthAsian (June 2007)

Bangladeshis have been looking to the press for leadership in a time of military rule, but the journalists have allowed themselves to be bullied by populism and cowed by fear of authority.

On 11 January, Bangladesh’s interim government announced a state of emergency, and a censorship regime was imposed on the country’s media. The following day, the editor of the English-language The Daily Star, Mahfuz Anam, declared: “We believe this move to be against the interest of democracy and of Bangladesh. Just as mistakes after mistakes have brought us to this stage of political crisis, the decision of gagging the press is nothing but a continuation of those mistaken decisions.” A few days later, Anam wrote an angry editorial about receiving a phone call from an unknown caller giving him “press advice”. He promised that his paper would never abdicate its responsibility under such pressure.