Abstract
“I have always written for truth, for people, and for my country . . . [b]ut today, when I look at my own life, I feel that living by writing the truth is not easy.” The words from Bibhuranjan Sarkar’s suicide note echo into the minds of all Bangladeshi journalists as fears of retaliation took precedent over the work of informing the public. Journalism in South Asia has always been a toxic balance between writing what is fair versus writing what people in power want you to write. In Bangladesh, the autocracy led by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina created countless obstacles to journalistic speech. Through the Cyber Security Act (CSA), Hasina threatened the livelihoods and safety of journalists by creating an environment of impunity where extrajudicial killings were ignored and censorship was commonplace. There were countless reports of disappearances and murders of journalists, baseless revocations of credentials, and censorship through internet shutdowns.
Though the Hasina government was toppled in 2024, Bangladeshi journalists still feel unsafe to report news unfavorable to the ideals of the Muslim majority or anti-government stances. Journalists in Bangladesh still face many obstacles in exercising the basic right to free speech and freedom of the press, a problem that remains unrectified by the interim government. Instead, the substitution of a surveillance-based legal framework and pressure to exclude certain anti-government and anti-Muslim views have hindered journalistic speech by placing blocks on the flow of information online. With the upcoming elections in February 2026, there must be a focus on reforming press freedom and ensuring that the Cyber Security Ordinance (CSO) 2025, the replacement for the CSA, is fully repealed.
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