By Nava Thakuria*
On August 9, 2025, in the remote village of Mokra Dhodhogachh under Lalmonirhat, Bangladesh, young journalist Helal Hossain Kabir of Alormoni newsweekly and his mother were viciously attacked by a group of miscreants, both now recovering from their wounds in a hospital ward. The police moved quickly, arresting the alleged mastermind, Sohrab Hossain, from the same village, while continuing their hunt for other culprits. This assault came hot on the heels of a gruesome murder in Gazipur near Dhaka, where Md. Asaduzzaman Tuhin, a 40-year-old reporter for the Mymensingh-based Dainik Pratidiner Kagoj, was hacked to death on August 7 at a local tea stall. Police investigations revealed Tuhin was targeted for filming an extortion attempt by local goons, his camera capturing evidence that proved fatal. CCTV footage from a nearby building recorded the brutal attack, showing Tuhin sustaining fatal injuries and dying on the spot, leaving behind his devastated wife, Mukta Akhter, two young sons, and a grieving extended family. Authorities arrested six suspects—Md. Ketu Mizan, his wife Parul Akhter alias Golapi, Md. Swadhin, Sumon, Al-Amin, Shah Jalal, and Foysal Hassan—yet the arrests do little to quell the fear gripping Bangladesh’s journalistic community. Just a day earlier, on August 6, Gazipur witnessed another attack when Anwar Hossain of Dainik Bangladesher Alo was beaten in broad daylight while probing extortion schemes targeting local vendors and auto-rickshaw drivers. Earlier, on June 25, in Dhaka’s Nabinagar locality, Khandaker Shah Alam of Dainik Matrijagat was killed by a released prisoner who blamed Alam’s investigative reporting for his imprisonment, a chilling testament to the enduring risks of exposing criminality.
These violent incidents, unfolding in rapid succession, expose the perilous state of press freedom in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million hurtling toward its 13th Jatiya Sansad elections in the first week of February 2026. In a televised address on August 5, 2025, marking the first anniversary of the 2024 July-August mass uprising that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic regime, interim government head Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate, celebrated as the “banker to the poor,” spoke passionately in Bengali about press freedom as a pillar of democracy. Reflecting on the uprising’s crescendo on August 5, 2024, when students and ordinary citizens dismantled what he called a fascist regime in Dhaka, Yunus acknowledged that the government itself had long been the greatest barrier to free journalism. He touted sweeping reforms to change this, declaring that his administration has opened space for criticism across mainstream, social, and even state-run media—a seismic shift from the repression of the past. “Now, anyone, whether through mainstream or social media, can freely criticise the government,” he proclaimed, a freedom unimaginable under Hasina’s rule. To bolster journalistic integrity, the government restructured the Press Council of Bangladesh and introduced training programs to equip journalists to counter disinformation. Yunus also announced the repeal of the Digital Security Act, later replaced by the Cyber Security Act, which the previous regime had allegedly weaponised to silence media personnel. All cases filed against journalists under this law were withdrawn, a move hailed as a step toward unshackling the press.
Yet, the reality on the ground tells a far bleaker story, one where violence, harassment, and institutional pressures suffocate the media despite these reforms. A Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) report covering August 2024 to July 2025 paints a stark picture: 496 journalists faced harassment, 266 were implicated in murder cases linked to the July uprising, and three were killed while on duty. The professional toll is equally severe, with eight newspaper editors and 11 news chiefs from private television channels dismissed, and at least 150 journalists terminated. An editorial in The Daily Star, Dhaka’s leading English newspaper, captured the public’s growing disillusionment, noting that the fall of Hasina’s regime had sparked high hopes for a freer, less politically tainted media landscape; yet, the interim government has failed to deliver visible progress toward this goal. “Attacks on journalists are not limited to physical harm,” the editorial lamented, highlighting a broader erosion of accountability that threatens the democratic process.
The New Delhi-based Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) amplified these concerns in a report released on August 5, 2025, the anniversary of Hasina’s ouster. It documented a “dramatic escalation” in attacks under Yunus’s interim government, with 878 journalists targeted, including 431 facing physical assaults or criminal threats, and 195 criminal cases filed against them. RRAG director Suhas Chakma pointed to the misuse of state institutions, noting that the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, previously untainted by such abuses, issued notices to 107 journalists over the past year. At least 167 journalists were denied press accreditation, many allegedly due to past affiliations with the Hasina regime, a move that risks silencing dissenting voices and entrenching new forms of censorship. These figures reveal a troubling paradox: while Yunus champions press freedom, state mechanisms continue to intimidate and marginalise journalists, undermining the very reforms he advocates.
International outcry has grown louder in response to this crisis. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demanded swift justice for the perpetrators of Tuhin’s murder and Hossain’s assault, presumed members of armed gangs, and urged the government to implement measures to guarantee journalist safety. The Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) echoed this call, with president Blaise Lempen condemning the “pathetic” loss of Tuhin’s life for his efforts to expose criminals. Lempen pressed the interim regime to prioritise media safety as Bangladesh prepares for its pivotal elections, warning that unchecked violence could erode democratic credibility. These global voices underscore a critical tension: while Yunus’s reforms signal intent to foster a free press, the unrelenting attacks—coupled with legal harassment, institutional overreach, and professional purges—reveal a gap between rhetoric and reality. As Bangladesh stands at a democratic crossroads, the safety of its journalists remains a litmus test for the nation’s commitment to accountability and open discourse, with the world watching to see if the interim government can bridge this divide before the polls.
*Senior journalist
