Mass media is facing lack of reliability. Union leaders have said that to overcome this calamity, media workers, owners and media organisations have to work together with government’s participation.
There are seven reasons for the crisis: 1. Political allegiance of media bodies erode credibility; 2. Due to fear of militants and pressure from several areas, publishing objective news has become tough; 3. Legal restrictions prevent the publication of the whole truth; 4. Media workers cannot bring out the truth due to the likes and dislikes of owners/publishers; 5. Misleading news plus news with a mixture of truth, half-truths and fiction creating division; 6. The absence of an employment policy for media workers; 7. Narrowing of advertisement for media with rise of digital mediums.
Head of crime reporting for Prothom Alo, Kamrul Hassan, says: “due to lack of reliability, objective journalism is impeded.”
Collecting news has become tougher than before and the process has become complex; there is also a fear with the digital act, he added.
“Many of the media workers are acting like political activists and in many cases, are resorting to self-censorship.”
Senior reporter for bdnews24.com Nurul Islam Hasib, says: “crisis is being created as media workers are failing to maintain professionalism; many news items are being published without assessing their authenticity.”
Joint president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, BFUJ, Syed Ishtiaq Reza, says: “in a politically divisive time, media is also divided; now there’s nothing called the freedom of the media, instead we are seeing the absolute freedom of the owners.”
Media houses are being run on the whims of the owners, he lamented.
He also said that the media is in a financially precarious state.
Acting editor of Dainik Jugantor and president of the National Press Club, Saiful Alam, says: “the media has to negotiate the ever changing political landscapes, fluctuations in economy and threats from militants and radicals; as a result, the risk in media is rising.”
It’s not just Bangladesh, even in the international arena, the media is going through uncertain times with an absence of trust and reliability.
Former president of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, BFUJ, Monzurul Ahsan Bulbul, said: “since media involves the owner, the workers and investors, everyone has to sit and find a way out from the predicament.”
He underlined the shrinking of advertisements as a major cause for media’s current state of uncertainty.
“If the employment act of media workers is passed in parliament, then electronic media workers will get a legal basis.”
Acknowledging that traditional media all over the world is facing threat due to the rise of new media formats, he observed: “if we work together by identifying the problems, a lasting solution can be found.”