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Prothm Alo and The Dily Star: The Factories of Misinformation and Tagging

 In the post-2024 political landscape of Bangladesh, a significant debate has emerged regarding the role of elite media outlets like Prothom Alo and The Daily Star.1 While these institutions long presented themselves as liberal-secular bastions, critics now argue that they served as "intellectual facilitators" for the Awami League’s 17-year rule by systematically weaponizing the "Islamic extremism" tag to delegitimize any form of opposition.

The Mechanism of "Extremism" Tagging

Political analysts suggest that these outlets operated within a "War on Terror" framework that aligned with both the Sheikh Hasina regime and regional powers like India.

  • The Hyphenated Enemy: For nearly two decades, these papers consistently used the "BNP-Jamaat" hyphenation. By tethering the largest mainstream opposition party (BNP) to an Islamist one (Jamaat-e-Islami), they successfully framed all dissent as an existential threat to secularism. This narrative provided the moral cover for the AL's 2014 and 2018 "voterless" elections (Source: Cogent Arts & Humanities, 2021).

  • The Intelligence Pipeline: Reports indicate that many "militant hideout" stories and "extremist plot" exposures were published based on direct feeds from the DGFI and NSI without independent verification. This created a permanent state of fear that justified draconian laws like the Digital Security Act (Source: CGS, 2025).

  • Selective Human Rights: Critics point out that while these papers were quick to highlight "fundamentalist excesses," they remained relatively muted or "balanced" regarding state-sponsored massacres, such as the 2013 Motijheel Shapla Chattar crackdown or the 2024 July atrocities, until the regime's fall was imminent (Source: MDPI, 2023).

Accountability: Making the "Fourth Estate" Responsible

With the formation of the Media Reform Commission in 2025, there is a growing demand to hold these outlets accountable for "Devils Journalism"—a term used to describe media that weaponizes disinformation for state or corporate gain.2

  1. Judicial Commissions for Disinformation:

    Legal experts are advocating for the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) or a specialized "Truth and Accountability Commission" to investigate media houses that knowingly spread state-sponsored falsehoods during the "July Uprising" and earlier. This would involve examining whether editorial decisions were influenced by secret intelligence funding (Source: UNESCO/TIB Dialogue, 2025).

  2. Independent Media Regulatory Authority (IMRA):

    A proposed non-partisan regulator would have the power to review licenses.3 Outlets found to have systematically engaged in "ideological warfare" or "malicious tagging" could face suspension or mandatory leadership changes to restore editorial neutrality (Source: The Financial Express, 2025).

  3. Financial Transparency & Audits:

    A key step toward accountability is the mandatory disclosure of all funding sources—specifically identifying corporate ties to the "fascist" regime and foreign intelligence entities.4 Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) has called for audits into "advertising monopolies" that favored these outlets in exchange for narrative loyalty (Source: TIB, 2025).

  4. The "Right to Correction" Mandate:

    New laws are being discussed that would require newspapers to give equal space to "rebuttals" from groups they labeled as extremist if those labels are proven false by independent fact-checkers like Rumor Scanner or Dismislab.

Comparison of Media Roles

EraNarrative TechniqueObjective
2009–2024"Islamic Extremism" vs. "Secularism"Manufacturing international consent for the AL.
Post-2024"Fascist Accomplice" vs. "Pro-July Forces"Defining the new "State Repair" boundaries.

Citations

  • MDPI (2025): "Manufacturing Legitimacy: Media Ownership and the Framing of the July 2024 Uprising in Bangladesh."

  • CGS-BD (2025): "Role of Bangladeshi Media During the July Uprising: My Experience from the Newsroom."

  • Financial Express (2025): "Media reform: Strategic actions awaited eagerly."5

  • UNESCO/TIB (2025): "Brave New Bangladesh: Reform Roadmap for Press Freedom."

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