Under Muhammad Yunus’ fascist interim regime, Bangladesh has descended into a nightmare of brutal suppression of the pressโyet Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), that supposed watchdog of integrity, cynically whitewashes the horror in its latest report. This is nothing short of duplicitous complicity in Yunus’s authoritarian crackdown.
TIB’s so-called research grudgingly admits that in the regime’s first year and a half, a mere 189 journalists were sacked, eight newspaper editors and 11 private TV news chiefs dismissed, with top-level shake-ups in 29 media outlets and ownership changes in one online portal.
It tosses in some figures: 497 harassment incidents victimising 1,104 media workers from August 2024 to December 2025, 204 journalists slapped with cases (including July uprising murder charges), and 30 denied bail and rotting in jail.
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But this pathetic understatement reeks of deliberate minimisation. Independent voices and journalists themselves expose the real scale of Yunus’s media pogrom: over 1,000 journalists brutally fired in the past year and a half, including more than 80 from BTV alone and over 60 each from Ekattor and DBC. TIB shamelessly slashes the number to just 189โwhy the blatant undercounting? To shield their patron?
Worse, TIB completely ignores the regime’s most egregious crimes: the revocation of accreditation cards for nearly 200 (some reports say over 167) journalistsโan unprecedented global outrage with no parallel anywhere else.
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Mobs, egged on or tolerated by Yunus’ thugs, have beaten and harassed pro-liberation war spirit journalists like Shahriar Kabir, Shyamal Dutta, Mozammel Babu, Farjana Rupa, Shakil Ahmed, and Anis Alamgir, detaining many without trial. Conspiracy-laden false murder cases have targeted around 300 such journalists since August 5, 2024, forcing over 1,000 to live in hiding under mob threats.
The blood doesn’t stop there: More than 10 journalists have been murdered across the country. Before his mysterious death, journalist Bibhuranjan Sarkar openly exposed the relentless pressure from Yunus’ own press wing on media outlets. The regime has jailed at least 50 journalists without granting bail, frozen or seized bank accounts of dozens more, and illegally captured national and local press clubsโlooting DUJ and BFUJ offices, burning documents, and arbitrarily suspending or expelling over 100 pro-liberation journalists from the Jatiya Press Club.
TIB’s report sugarcoats this fascist assault by noting RSF’s minor ranking improvement (which means nothing when the environment remains toxic), whining about unreformed repressive laws, and the ignored draft Journalist Protection Actโwhile refusing to call out the regime’s direct orchestration of this terror.
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This hypocrisy is no accident. TIB chief Iftekharuzzaman has clung to his post for over 25 years like a parasite, and he is a longtime close aide of Yunus himself. Back in the 2007-08 army-backed caretaker governmentโwhen Yunus pulled strings from behind the scenes, pushing his “reforms” and depoliticisation agendaโIftekharuzzaman stood firmly by his side.
Now, as Yunus unleashes his own brand of authoritarianism masked as reform, TIB dutifully plays the loyal lapdog, downplaying mass persecution to protect their master’s image.
TIBโs report isn’t oversightโit’s active cover for Yunus’ fascist regime, crushing free speech and terrorising the press. The world must see through this duplicity: Yunus’s Bangladesh is no beacon of hope; it’s a graveyard for independent media.
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