Ignoring media reform now would be a serious strategic misstep.
The foreign ministry should not be credited for Yunus's engagements in London with politicians, business leaders, academics, and leading diaspora figures.
After the discussion at Chatham House, will the meeting between Prof Yunus and Tarique Rahman offer more insights?
The party has been fundamentally reshaped—ideologically and structurally—into a vehicle for autocratic rule.
Hopefully, the interim government would take sincere initiatives to implement the much-needed reforms in the media sector soon.
The past 15 years have seen the most severe narrowing of civic space, heightened surveillance, intimidation, and reprisals that often led to self-censorship. Rather than accountability for these violations, officials responsible were often rewarded for their misconduct. As we move forward with several reform agendas that can be implemented within a short timeframe, it is essential to have a national conversation on what "governance anchored in human rights" should truly look like.
The media industry of Bangladesh will have to embark on a long struggle to regain the trust of the people.
Ensuring justice for these crimes will require bringing all responsible parties to account, from top political leaders to the enforcers on the ground.
The Bangladesh Press Council is fully dependent on government funding. As a result, its independence to act as a self-regulatory body remains susceptible to government interference.
UN human rights chief's visit to Dhaka revealed contrasting expectations on the part of the government and rights groups.
While the government in India has listened to opposition, in Bangladesh, the government has brushed aside the civil society’s concerns.
The Gambia’s case against Myanmar for the genocide of Rohingyas is now all set to be heard and judged by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
One of the most important but undervalued events of India’s independence movement was the naval revolt of 1946, about which Indian historian Sumit Sarker wrote,
The whole episode raises some serious questions regarding the roles of both the lawmaker and the college principals.
According to the Global Emotions Report 2022, Bangladesh is the seventh saddest nation in the world. And we became miserable well before the onset of high inflation and cost of living crisis.
Two verdicts in two different countries, located thousands of miles apart, by their respective supreme courts last week have stoked a serious debate about the role of judges and politicisation of the judiciary.
Well-known civic rights activist Mizanur Rahman’s narration of his harrowing experience of being picked up by police and tortured under custody, published in this newspaper’s online version on June 15, gives us some disturbing snapshots of the unlawful actions of our law enforcement agencies.
When Bangladesh needs to show that it has been listening to the concerns about respecting human rights and upholding the rule of law, it has done quite the opposite.
