ABSTRACT
The history of the dynamic between the media and the state in Bangladesh has consistently been one of the latter suppressing and censoring the former. This chapter critically traces the history of the Fourth Estate as a means of analyzing how the government has been able to neutralize all of its socio-political potential. Since independence in 1971, Bangladeshi media has evolved in tandem with global trends and technology, as have methods of persecuting journalists and controlling the press. The government has used draconian laws, violence and intimidation, and leverage through capitalist ownership models, to turn the neutered domestic media into a propaganda machine. By shutting down important avenues for honesty, dissent and resistance, the state has – over time, and perhaps irredeemably – eradicated press freedom and defined the strict parameters of what can be called the objective truth. This chapter provides a detailed look at how this has been achieved.
