December 12, 2025
DHAKA – As the country moves towards the much-anticipated 2026 general election—promised to be an exemplary one by the interim government led by Professor Muhammad Yunus—early signs of political intolerance and toxicity have become increasingly alarming. Amid this volatility, journalists are raising concerns about a hostile reporting environment, ranging from online harassment to physical threats, even at this early stage of election coverage. A new study, “High Risks, Low Preparedness: Journalist Safety in 2026 Elections,” reveals that an overwhelming 89 percent of journalists expect to face physical assault while covering the polls.
Based on a survey of 201 journalists across 19 districts, the research paints a picture of a deeply polarised and volatile landscape ahead. It shows that 89 percent of journalists anticipate high levels of physical violence; 76 percent expect verbal harassment, while 71 percent fear intimidation. The outlook appears even more troubling for women journalists: 50 percent fear sexual harassment, and 40 percent fear sexual assault during election-related reporting.
An especially disturbing trend is the widening scope of attacks on the press, extending beyond the field to newsrooms and media outlets themselves. Whether the threats originate from political actors, criminal groups, or law enforcement agencies, the intent appears consistent: to silence the media from exposing wrongdoing, abuses of power, violations of the law, and other conduct that undermines a fair electoral environment.
This was not the expectation. At least a dozen journalists spoke about their ordeals at the event marking the publication of the study report, and half of them were women, mostly working in broadcast media, which made them easily recognisable and exposed to increased vulnerability. They are being targeted both offline and online, and the online vitriol is quite offensive, degrading, and ferocious.
The interim government had pledged to undertake reforms to ensure a “free, robust, and objective media.” To that end, it established a commission in November 2024 and received its report and recommendations on March 22 this year. Since then, Information Adviser Mahfuj Alam has repeatedly stated that the government is implementing the proposed reforms—most importantly, an act to safeguard journalists in the course of their work. On September 28, he told a seminar that the government would enact the Journalist Protection Act within two to three months “at any cost.”
The proposed Journalism Protection Act and the setting up of a national media commission were the two most significant steps the reform commission recommended. It received strong and wider support not only from within the media industry but also from political parties of all colours as well as the international community. Notably, Unesco and the European Union offered their support in implementing this framework, which would improve journalists’ security and ensure their freedom.
Yet no such ordinance has been issued to date. Instead, we have learned that a special committee of advisers was formed—and later reconstituted—to examine the reform commission’s recommendations and identify those that could be implemented with minimal difficulty. Reliable sources indicate significant resistance to enacting the proposed Journalist Protection Act, and the advisers’ committee is inclined to ditch it. Some bureaucrats have argued that a strengthened National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) could provide sufficient protection for journalists under threat, even though NHRC’s capacity, even after revamping it following enactment of a new ordinance, remains limited in scope, lacking any power to award punishment to offending parties.
Another reason cited for shelving the act is the information ministry’s insistence on retaining the much-criticised Bangladesh Press Council rather than replacing it with the recommended National Media Commission, a new self-regulatory body. The reform commission proposed that the media commission enforce higher ethical standards across the media industry and adjudicate public complaints involving print, broadcast, and online media. The press council’s authority extends only to print newspapers, leaving broadcast and online outlets effectively unsupervised. The council is also subject to full budgetary and some administrative control of the information ministry.
According to informed sources, the advisers’ committee’s only notable initiative so far is a move to grant autonomy to Bangladesh Television (BTV)—an effort reportedly facing resistance from BTV employees and sections of the bureaucracy. This proposal also runs counter to the reform commission’s recommendation to merge Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar, and Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) into an autonomous national broadcasting organisation. Such a merger would enhance independence, improve efficiency, and yield significant savings for the public exchequer.
Most of the remaining 21 broader reform measures appear to have been consigned to cold storage. Among journalists, the greatest frustration stems from the government’s failure to reform the financial foundations of the media industry. Many outlets lack economic viability and fail to provide adequate salaries and benefits, leaving journalists and media outlets vulnerable to pressure from powerful corporate, political, and other influential actors.
The study on journalist safety in the 2026 elections serves as a stark reminder that had the interim government fulfilled its commitment to enact the Journalist Protection Act in time, many attacks might have been prevented—or at least, a clear warning would have been sent to potential perpetrators that impunity would no longer be tolerated. The draft law proposed by the reform commission explicitly defined the forms of abuse requiring protection, including “violence, threats, and harassment … endangering the life and property of a journalist engaged in professional work, including criminal intimidation, harassment, molestation, surveillance, physical or mental torture, insult, obstruction of work, coercion, sexual harassment, illegal detention, enforced disappearance, and abduction.”
Our deepest concern is that the interim government led by Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus risks being held responsible for failing to prevent attacks on journalists despite its promises of a truly independent, robust, and objective media environment. There is still time to take decisive action: to enact the Journalist Protection Ordinance and establish a permanent National Media Commission.