Bangladesh has dropped 10 spots to rank 162nd out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, according to the Reporters Without Borders, also known as Reporters sans frontièr’s (RSF). The ranking of the organisation’s 2022 World Press Freedom Index report and released on Tuesday (May 4) puts Bangladesh in the category of countries with a “very serious” situation. The other categories are “good”, “satisfactory”, “problematic” and “difficult”. The annual press freedom index, which has been compiled in some form since 2002, is based on pooling responses sent out by Reporters Without Borders to media professionals, lawyers and sociologists.
As we observe World Press Freedom Day, our country’s record remains poor as the country ranks at the bottom of the eight countries in South Asia, having slid from 146 in 2018 to 152 in 2021 on Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom index. Bangladesh was first included in the index in 2013, when it ranked 144th out of 180 countries. The repression legitimised under the so-called draconian Digital Security Act (DSA), and the newly proposed law signal an imminent deterioration of press freedom. Between January 2020 and February 2022, more than 200 journalists have been implicated across the country under the law.
Earlier, in August 2021, police were required to reveal the number of cases they filed under the DSA at any given time reportedly. In response to an inquiry under the country’s Right to Information Act, they argued that the public disclosure of such information could apparently “obstruct enforcement of the law.”
Experts, however, believe that this law is deeply problematic and clearly arbitrary in nature. Thus to make the new law fair and transparent, the authorities must broaden consultations to allow the concerns of numerous independent critics to be heard. Otherwise, many more individuals, including journalists, will continue to be punished under the DSA.
In the country profile of Bangladesh, the organisation criticised the ruling party, saying “members and supporters of the party often subject the journalists they dislike to targeted physical violence, while judicial harassment campaigns are carried out to silence certain journalists or force media outlets to close”.
Without assurance of law under independent judiciary there cannot be categories of press freedom. Either there is press freedom or there is not. There is no protection of law for press freedom. The press exists in fear of uncertainty. Press freedom depends on how much or how little the government will tolerate.
