In the shadowy corridors of Bangladesh’s interim government, where promises of reform echo hollowly against the walls of authoritarian excess, the press wing stands as a grotesque monument to hypocrisy. Led by figures like Abul Kalam Azad Majumdar, the Deputy Press Secretary to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, this so-called “information” apparatus has devolved into a shameless propaganda factory.
Azad’s recent utterances at the State University of Bangladesh, where he brazenly claimed journalists now enjoy “unlimited freedom,” serve as the latest exhibit in a gallery of lies. This is not mere spin; it’s a calculated assault on truth, designed to whitewash a regime mired in repression, cronyism, and mob-orchestrated violence.
As Bangladesh teeters on the brink of democratic backsliding, Yunus’ press wing isn’t safeguarding free expressionโit’s strangling it, one false claim at a time.
Let’s dissect Azad’s audacious performance. Speaking to wide-eyed journalism freshmen on October 11, 2025, the former New Age reporter painted a fairy tale of post-July Uprising liberation. “Journalists have been given unlimited freedom,” he intoned, as if reciting from a script penned in the Yunus inner sanctum.
He lamented “self-censorship” under the old regime, only to pivot to vague warnings about misinformation in the digital age. How nobleโexcept it’s pure fiction. This from a man whose wing operates under the thumb of a government that has unleashed a 230% surge in attacks on journalists since August 2024, according to the Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG). Over 878 media workers were targeted in a single year. That’s not freedom; that’s a blood-soaked ledger of intimidation.
The press wing’s lies don’t stop at verbal sleight-of-hand. They manifest in active suppression, a betrayal of the very uprising Yunus rode to power. Consider the partisan TV licensing scandal that erupted just days ago, on October 8.
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Amid vows of transparency and anti-corruption, the regime handed golden tickets to Next Television and Live TVโlicenses snapped up by Arifur Rahman Tuhin, a National Citizen Party (NCP) leader, and Arifur Rahman, a Yunus ally from the National Citizensโ Committee.
Yunus-aides, including Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, decry this as favoritism dressed in legal garb.
“The government had an opportunity to create a fair, transparent licensing policy,” he said, only for Yunus’ cabal to bypass the Media Reform Commission’s recommendations and anoint their cronies.
Information Adviser Mahfuj Alam’s feeble retortโ”We’re fostering a competitive, anti-fascist media”โdrowns in the irony. Competitive? Tell that to the 50+ media outlets gutted by unchecked mob attacks since Hasina’s fall, from the looting of ATN Bangla to the ransacking of Kaler Kantho.
This isn’t oversight; it’s orchestrated propaganda, with the press wing as conductor. Azad’s wing pumps out narratives that glorify the regime’s “reforms” while burying the bodies of slain journalists. At least 10 media workers have been murdered since August 2024, including Khandaker Shah Alam in June 2025โa targeted hit that reeks of reprisal. Yet, where’s the press wing’s outrage? Silent, save for platitudes about “fighting disinformation.”
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Disinformation? The real poison flows from Yunus’ own fountains: false criminal cases slapping 292 journalists with charges of murder, genocide, and crimes against humanity.
Shahriar Kabir, Farzana Rupa, and Shakil Ahmed rot in cells on fabricated evidence, their “crimes” nothing more than perceived loyalty to the ousted Awami League. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) brands these “outrageous charges” a “spiral of revenge,” while the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) calls them “apparently baseless” vendettas.
Thirteen journalists remain imprisoned as of mid-2025, denied bail in a judicial farce overseen by Yunus’ handpicked advisers.
The press wing’s complicity extends to accreditation purges, a bureaucratic guillotine that has severed over 285 journalists from their livelihoods by early 2025. No explanations offeredโjust mass revocations, targeting “pro-Awami” voices and barring them from government access.
The Editorsโ Council warns that this breeds “a climate of control, including censorship,” and TIB dubs it the hallmark of an “anti-people authoritarian regime.” Add to this the financial chokeholds: 18 journalists’ bank accounts frozen, 107 probed by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, and over 300 slapped with travel bans.
It’s a chilling symphony of coercion, with Azad’s team cheerleading from the wings. Their Facebook posts and press releases tout “media freedom” as if 1,000 job losses and 83 revoked press club memberships are badges of progress. Propaganda at its most insidiousโreframing terror as triumph.
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Mob violence, too, bears the press wing’s fingerprints through omission. Since August 2024, 74 documented assaults on newsrooms, from the Chittagong Press Club melee injuring 20 to coordinated sieges on Prothom Alo and The Daily Star over spurious “anti-Islamic” smears.
Authorities stand idle, allowing “mob justice” to flourish. The Newspaper Ownersโ Association’s pleas for protection fall on deaf ears in Yunus’ Dhaka fortress. Why? Because these attacks serve the regime’s narrative: silence dissent, then blame the chaos on “fascist remnants.” Azad’s warnings about misinformation ring especially hollow here; the wing itself spreads the lie that such violence is organic, not state-tolerated.
Even proposed laws like the Cyber Protection Ordinance 2025 threaten to codify this nightmare, empowering surveillance and stifling online critique. CPJ highlights the “chilling effect,” with reporters like Rahman Mizan and Fazle Rabbi sacked for daring to question officials.
Expatriate journalist groups decry it as “systematic persecution,” yet Yunus’ press wing parrots the regime’s anti-corruption facade, ignoring scandals like Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb’s alleged BTCL robbery or the eight advisers mired in graft.
The Media Reform Commission’s blueprintโtransparent licensing, an independent oversight body, a 15-year license auditโgathers dust, sabotaged by Yunus’ inner circle. Kamal Ahmed, the commission head, laments the hypocrisy: best practices ignored for political expediency.
Sarjis Alam’s dismissal of NCP favouritism as “BNP envy” only underscores the rot. With 50 channels rubber-stamped (many sold for crores in backroom deals), the market is oversaturated with regime mouthpieces, not diverse voices.
Yunus’ press wing isn’t a bulwark against lies; it’s their epicentre. Azad Majumdar’s “unlimited freedom” is a cruel joke on a profession under siege. Bangladesh’s journalists deserve better than this parade of falsehoodsโfalse claims of liberty masking a crackdown, propaganda glorifying cronies while dissents bleed.
The international community, from RSF to CPJ, demands that Yunus review these abuses and enact real reforms. Until the press wing is dismantled and truth restored, Yunus’ interim dream remains a dictator’s delusion. The uprising’s spirit wasn’t for this betrayal; it was for a free press, not a fettered one. Time to expose the machineโand smash it.
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