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As Bangladesh teeters on the brink of democratic backsliding, Yunus’ press wing isn’t safeguarding free expression\u2014it’s strangling it, one false claim at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He lamented “self-censorship” under the old regime, only to pivot to vague warnings about misinformation in the digital age. How noble\u2014except 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yunus faces backlash over partisan TV licensing amid press freedom crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Banglavision TV reveals brutality by Adviser Asif Mahmud\u2019s reckless father<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n 5G project: How Yunus aide Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb is robbing BTCL<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid vows of transparency and anti-corruption, the regime handed golden tickets to Next Television and Live TV\u2014licenses snapped up by Arifur Rahman Tuhin, a National Citizen Party (NCP) leader, and Arifur Rahman, a Yunus ally from the National Citizens\u2019 Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yunus-aides, including Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, decry this as favoritism dressed in legal garb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Information Adviser Mahfuj Alam’s feeble retort\u2014”We’re fostering a competitive, anti-fascist media”\u2014drowns 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 2025\u2014a targeted hit that reeks of reprisal. Yet, where’s the press wing’s outrage? Silent, save for platitudes about “fighting disinformation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mobocracy: Bangladesh is not the right place for journalists<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bibhuranjan\u2019s Death: Citizens demand judicial inquiry, action against Yunus\u2019 press wing<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Bibhuranjan Sarker dies a tragic death, exposes state of press freedom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Disinformation? The real poison flows from Yunus’ own fountains: false criminal cases slapping 292 journalists with charges of murder, genocide, and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirteen journalists remain imprisoned as of mid-2025, denied bail in a judicial farce overseen by Yunus’ handpicked advisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 offered\u2014just mass revocations, targeting “pro-Awami” voices and barring them from government access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Editors\u2019 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 insidious\u2014reframing terror as triumph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n