Staff Reporter :
Journalists of the country are suffering from depressions in their professional life. Consequent, most of them want switching over to others professions.
Such information has been disclosed in a research report titled ‘An Investigation into Risk to Mental Health of Bangladeshi Journalists’ led by Aminul Islam, a teacher of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), a leading private university of the country.
The research team had three persons including the same department teacher Sarkar Barbak Karmal as well as former student Apan Das.
According to the report, about 42.09 percent journalists in the country are depressed about their profession. About 71.07 percent journalists want to leave journalism another profession.
The study was conducted on 191 journalists working in the country’s different newspapers, satellite television and online news portals. The study further said that the main reason for such unexpected thoughts of journalists is the uncertainty about job security in this profession.
About 85 percent of journalists are suffering from job insecurity.
Besides, other reasons behind the frustration of journalists are lack of timely promotion, low pay and extra work stress.
According to the survey, reporters suffer more from depression than others sections. The rate of reporter is 44.32, copy editor is 34 and news editor is 28.57.
Aminul Islam, Head of the research team, told the media that the mental health of journalists is important. But the level of awareness in the county’s media house is very low.
However, media organizations must consider the issue of mental health of the journalists in the workplace properly, he added.
