Freedom of press and our media
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Shamsher Chowdhury
Gone are the days when our journalistic community was considered one of the integral parts of our society at large. They too, like many others of the civil society and the intellectual communities in general, are viewed with considerable suspicion and mistrust. However, one must recognise the fact that this very media made significant contributions in mobilising people internally and the outside world during those dreadful months of our occupation culminating in the war of liberation. It was journalism at its best. It was courage pure and simple in quest of the truth. Looks like all that has become a matter of the past. For all practical purposes there has been a serious erosion of moral and ethical values of our journalists in general. Many of our journalists today have become pawns in the hands of powerful elements of our society against fat salaries and perks working for the media owned by them. This is true both in the case of the print and the electronic media. Most of the media is engaged in printing and disseminating news and views that are partisan in content and character. There are of course those who are engaged in an ugly race in putting down one another in advancing a particular agenda of specific owners. As a result, the general members of the public are being deprived of information and news that involve their interests. In all fairness, it must be pointed out that there are other factors that have contributed to the scenario. For the past couple of years or so, our media has been subjected to a subtle and silent intimidation by the present government. As a matter of fact, it is even worse. Senior working journalists have often been barred from performing their routine duties. Many of them continue to be subjected to harassment while engaged in discharging their duties at field levels. If not anything else it is contrary to the development of democracy and democratic traditions that we are presumably struggling to establish. Let us face it, the present trend in our media and journalistic practices are far from desirable. Our media must come out of this stifling and choking environment both for its own good, more so for the good of the country. It is our impression that the country is passing through many currents and undercurrents of changes and challenges from within and external forces. We are indeed at a critical juncture of our existence. Now is the time for the media and the journalists to call a spade a spade. Now is the time to stand up against all forms of injustices in no uncertain terms. They owe it to their conscience and their Creator. The owners in turn should help them to achieve that objective. In the meantime, people also must play their part by raising their voices against all forms of repression against the journalistic community. The voice of the media is stronger than protest marches and processions. Our media is becoming weaker by the day. It has simply lost its zeal and the moral courage in opposing the wrongdoings of the government and the ruling alliance, except on rare occasions. As for the electronic media, it is dominated by talk shows which are either partisan in character or serve as avenues of individual profile-building. Bangladesh Television (BTV) is always engaged in toeing the party line in all conceivable ways. One may confuse the level of freedom of the press by the number of dailies published in the country and the number of private TV channels in operation. Like in all other spheres, here too the ruling alliance seems to thrive on chaos and confusion. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the present state of the freedom of press in the country particularly during the past two years has been badly hit. Let us not forget that no free press, no democracy. A careful look at our dailies will reveal that most of them are elitist in nature. There is hardly any prominence given to peoples' concerns and peoples' issues. Besides, hardly any follow-up news is published on emerging issues facing the country. Look at it from any angle, the media is suffering from a kind of inertia and mediocrity. Media as an "institution" must be more innovative, free, frank and forward looking and, at times, fearless. The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com
Gone are the days when our journalistic community was considered one of the integral parts of our society at large. They too, like many others of the civil society and the intellectual communities in general, are viewed with considerable suspicion and mistrust. However, one must recognise the fact that this very media made significant contributions in mobilising people internally and the outside world during those dreadful months of our occupation culminating in the war of liberation. It was journalism at its best. It was courage pure and simple in quest of the truth. Looks like all that has become a matter of the past. For all practical purposes there has been a serious erosion of moral and ethical values of our journalists in general. Many of our journalists today have become pawns in the hands of powerful elements of our society against fat salaries and perks working for the media owned by them. This is true both in the case of the print and the electronic media. Most of the media is engaged in printing and disseminating news and views that are partisan in content and character. There are of course those who are engaged in an ugly race in putting down one another in advancing a particular agenda of specific owners. As a result, the general members of the public are being deprived of information and news that involve their interests. In all fairness, it must be pointed out that there are other factors that have contributed to the scenario. For the past couple of years or so, our media has been subjected to a subtle and silent intimidation by the present government. As a matter of fact, it is even worse. Senior working journalists have often been barred from performing their routine duties. Many of them continue to be subjected to harassment while engaged in discharging their duties at field levels. If not anything else it is contrary to the development of democracy and democratic traditions that we are presumably struggling to establish. Let us face it, the present trend in our media and journalistic practices are far from desirable. Our media must come out of this stifling and choking environment both for its own good, more so for the good of the country. It is our impression that the country is passing through many currents and undercurrents of changes and challenges from within and external forces. We are indeed at a critical juncture of our existence. Now is the time for the media and the journalists to call a spade a spade. Now is the time to stand up against all forms of injustices in no uncertain terms. They owe it to their conscience and their Creator. The owners in turn should help them to achieve that objective. In the meantime, people also must play their part by raising their voices against all forms of repression against the journalistic community. The voice of the media is stronger than protest marches and processions. Our media is becoming weaker by the day. It has simply lost its zeal and the moral courage in opposing the wrongdoings of the government and the ruling alliance, except on rare occasions. As for the electronic media, it is dominated by talk shows which are either partisan in character or serve as avenues of individual profile-building. Bangladesh Television (BTV) is always engaged in toeing the party line in all conceivable ways. One may confuse the level of freedom of the press by the number of dailies published in the country and the number of private TV channels in operation. Like in all other spheres, here too the ruling alliance seems to thrive on chaos and confusion. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that the present state of the freedom of press in the country particularly during the past two years has been badly hit. Let us not forget that no free press, no democracy. A careful look at our dailies will reveal that most of them are elitist in nature. There is hardly any prominence given to peoples' concerns and peoples' issues. Besides, hardly any follow-up news is published on emerging issues facing the country. Look at it from any angle, the media is suffering from a kind of inertia and mediocrity. Media as an "institution" must be more innovative, free, frank and forward looking and, at times, fearless. The writer can be reached at e-mail: chowdhury.shamsher@yahoo.com