The media sector in Bangladesh has developed enormously in recent decades. Bangladesh, even as worldwide print circulation decreases, has witnessed an unprecedented increase in the circulation of print papers, from one million in 2002 to 3.8 million in 2022 (DFP, 2022). Currently, there are 1,279 authorized daily newspapers published in the country, among these 429 from the capital Dhaka and the remaining from regional areas. TV channels and radio stations in Bangladesh are 45 and 35, respectively (DFP, 2023), with several thousand unregistered online news portals. In addition, there are many magazines published regularly from different places. According to the South Asia Press Freedom Report 2022-23 of IFJ, the number of authentic Bangla dailies published from Dhaka is more likely to be just 32, and fewer than 10 English dailies, including around 20 local dailies published from different districts, which maintain minimum journalistic requirements. The report remarks, “The mushrooming of media registered with the government website represents a spurt in quantity rather than in credible and ethical journalism.”
The total number of journalists is estimated to be around 17,500, split into two groups—loyal to the government and opposition political parties (BFUJ, 2024)—immediately before the fall of the Hasina-led government in 2024. In fact, Bangladeshi media have seen mushrooming growth since 2002. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the sector— with over 250 newspapers forced to shut down operations and many outlets unable to pay their personnel, including journalists (ME&A Inc., 2022:7). Sharma (2024:208), however, assumed that “the newspaper industry may survive in the country despite the fact that some old newspapers have already been closed down.”
Of late, private-sector media outlets are consolidated under the ownership of corporations—which, in turn, are owned by larger business conglomerates. While information on media ownership structures is available, there is little credible information on the overall advertising base or financial valuation of the media sector (ME&A Inc., 2022:7). Similarly, it seems that although print newspapers are dying in Western countries, the scenario is not still as bleak in Bangladesh. But the emergence of online newspapers causes a danger to the existence of print newspapers. This shift in the newspaper industry is mainly fueled by global access to information, ubiquitous news, real-time reporting, multimedia content, and interactivity. In fact, the Bangladeshi media industry is expanding significantly (ME&A, Inc.: 2022; Sharma, 2024). According to Rhaman, A. (2016) and Sharma (2024), the country, after its independence in 1971, had started with only ten newspapers; now there is a relatively large media industry.
Furthermore, it is witnessed that Bangladesh has been experiencing a sorry state of journalism affairs for approximately three decades due to the political polarization of the journalists that affects any serious thought on the profession. Rahman, A. (2016) opines that the division has given the owner and the government a golden opportunity to dictate terms. Journalists are selling their professional dignity to owners and becoming lapdogs instead of watchdogs or watchtowers by ignoring the traditional professional value—objectivity and responsibility. Similarly, media professionals in Bangladesh appear as a brokerage for corporate owners’ interests where the practice of journalism has neither the standard nor the sanctions by any regulatory body (Minhaz, 2025).
Journalists in Bangladesh generally are considered integral parts of political, social, and cultural processes, and they are expected to cater to national imperatives, such as nation building, social harmony, economic development, or preservation of cultural and religious values. Media in Bangladesh has a great legacy of playing a strong role in every major political and social transformation in the country (Rhaman, M., 2018; Ullah, 2013). The media, once leading political and social transformation, could not transform itself to the changes brought about by a digital transition. More so, advertisement revenue continued to shrink for extreme competitions; political, legal, and licensing barriers resulted in self-censorship and limited their ability to produce impactful journalism (Rhaman, A. 2016). As a result, trust eroded, and the structure of the traditional media industry became fragmented and mostly unprofitable. According to Rhaman, M. (2018:51), none of the media report on negative issues associated with their own respective owners, even though they adhere to news values and thus pay close attention to the practices of owners who compromise the principles of professional journalism. Moreover, they keep silent and kill negative stories about their potential advertisers’ businesses. Thus, “the financial issues and interests of the owners narrow down the scope of journalistic truth in Bangladesh” (Rhaman, M. 2018:51).
Self-censorship, along with intimidation, has grown to be a significant barrier to press freedom and the pursuit of the truth in Bangladeshi media under this justification (Minhaz, 2025; Nughat, 2024). This barrier has several causes that include, first, as journalists are being killed, harassed, and intimidated, they have become more aware of the issue of their own safety and security while working and filing stories. It is natural that many refrain from writing stories that may endanger their lives. Secondly, the causes are associated with editorship, as the editorial institutions have not yet developed in a manner that encourages the pursuit of sound editorial policy for journalism, free of fear and favor. Once upon a time, the editor tended to be the owner, but nowadays editors are recruited from the professional journalists. Rahman, A. (2016) remarks that editors are hardly ever in a position to exercise editorial independence to run the media, and in most cases, they tend to comply with the owners’ dictation and play the role of a business manager. The Editors’ Council of Bangladesh (ECB, 2022) within this pretext remarks on the World Press Freedom Day 2022 meeting that journalism in Bangladesh is under siege on the digital front, beginning from surveillance to draconian laws. This has led to a “culture of fear and self-censorship, curtailing freedom of expression and silencing independent media.” Arguably, in such a situation, journalism is not only a challenging profession, but it also becomes a sacrificial one in Bangladesh.
Ullah (2013:185) identified that professional journalism in Bangladesh is encircled by five ideal values that have given legitimacy and credibility to the activity throughout the decades. These are public service, objectivity, autonomy, immediacy, and ethics. But many of these values have been put into doubt, challenged by new technology as well as by the global economy and politics, because the contemporary media system in general is largely driven by one or two or three motives of profit, politics, propaganda, privilege, and power. The quality of journalism—embodied by the goals of accuracy, balance of facts, balance of diverse opinions, fairness, completeness, ethics, and timeliness—is being sacrificed for corporate interests (Ullah, 2013:185). Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Bangladesh 165th out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index and identified Bangladesh as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in their 2024 round-up report (Minhaz, 2025).
Journalism in Bangladesh has changed notably in recent years; however, this transformation is very recent and incomplete. The journalism profession in Bangladesh as a whole remains uncertain and volatile. In collaboration with the digital era, practitioners find importance in acquiring more technological skills, like improving their aptitude using search engines, which are considered paramount changes (Ullah & Akhter, 2016/WJS:5). Considering the overall media scenarios, we select two widely circulated newspapers—the Daily Star (English) and The Bandadesh Protidin (Bangla)—and both newspapers are privately owned, and Bangladesh has no government-sponsored newspaper at this moment. According to our study scale, these two newspapers fall under category 2—the low parallelism, where the newspaper’s political discourse is mixed, balanced, or showing less allegiance to the government in comparison to the opposition parties or other political voices in society.
Reference:
BFUJ-Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (2024) Number of Journalists in Bangladesh, Personal contact, President Farida Yesmin, 18/02/2024.
DFP- Department of Film and Publication Report, 2022-2023, Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
IFJ (2023). BANGLADESH: Quantity Over Quality, South Asia Press Freedom Report 2022-23 Available at: https://samsn.ifj.org/SAPFR22-23/bangladesh/#:~:text=Bangladesh%20has%203%2C176%20registered%20newspapers,Department%20of%20Films%20and%20Publications.
ME&A, Inc. (2022). Final Report: Assessment of the Media Sector in Bangladesh, USAID Bangladesh Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (BMEL) Activity, MD 20814 USA.
Minhaz, R. (2025). Challenges to media freedom in post-Hasina Bangladesh, The Daily Star, (January 10, 2025), Available at: https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/challenges-media-freedom-post-hasina-bangladesh-3795631
Nughat, S. (2024). Self-censorship in using social media in Bangladesh: Does regime structure matter? Journal of Governance and Accountability Studies, (JGAS) 4 (1): 43-59.
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Sharma, S. (2024). Anatomy of the rapid growth of online newspapers and its impact on online journalism in Bangladesh, In Dhiman Chattopadhyay ed. Global Journalism in Comparative Perspective: Case Studies, (pp 206-221), New York, Roultage.
The Editors Council of Bangladesh (2022) Journalism under siege on digital front, Available at: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/journalists-decry-dsa-3023546 (Accessed on Sept 02, 2022)
Ullah, M.S. (2013). Half-way between newsroom and classroom: The human resource development strategy for journalism in Bangladesh. Media Asia, 40(2), 183–196.
Ullah, M. S., & Akhter, R. (2016). Journalism Education in Bangladesh: In Search for an Integrated Curricula Framework. SEARCH Journal, 8(2), 48–61.