Star Weekend

Print media faces a long coma, or even death, but the media as a whole is facing a transition. Unless one runs with time, one is left behind. Many have adjusted and a mixed media has emerged, call it online or digital. Call it reality, call it new, it is what is flourishing today.

The future lives in a digital house not in one made of stones and newsprint. If one lives in a ramshackle building, dangers live next door. Old fashioned media was about values and content not form. No soldier survives without moving. It’s in shifting and grabbing new opportunities that victory lies.

Full speed ahead to the future.

Selfies of old school media The first time I reported professionally was in 1973 covering the DUCSU elections. I was excited, but I nearly got whacked when two political activists mistook me for an activist—long beard, long hair, long chador etc.—and chased me. I just kept moving as they shouted, “What are you doing here...

“At its core, surveillance capitalism is parasitic and self-referential. It revives Karl Marx’s old image of capitalism as a vampire that feeds on labour, but with an unexpected turn. Instead of labour, surveillance capitalism feeds on every aspect of every human’s experience.”

Media under surveillance capitalism Yes, our world has entered into a new phase of rule which can be termed as surveillance capitalism, at home as well as on a global scale. Shoshana Zuboff, the author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism writes, “At its core, surveillance capitalism is parasitic and self-referential.

Freedom House, in its 2019 edition of the annual report on the state of democracy, noted that for the past 13 years, democracy is facing an uninterrupted decline, and that the two institutions seriously impacted by this downward spiral are the electoral process and the media. The growing perils to freedom are not limited to countries which are undergoing democratisation but also consolidated democracies. The long-standing tradition of press freedom in many countries has eroded, pressures on journalists have increased, and more restrictive measures have been imposed over the media and journalists.

How new autocrats curb press freedom As democratic backsliding has become a global phenomenon and hybrid regimes—a political system which has both democratic and authoritarian traits—have proliferated, freedom of the press has come under threat all around the world.

Ignoring the concerns of journalists and rights defenders, the Digital Security Act was passed in the parliament on September 19, 2019. It is known both at home and abroad to be draconian, antithetical to freedom of speech and democracy.

Why?

Because the digital platform is touted today to be The Future of journalism and mass communication—the universal stage upon which individuals, communities, and countries can engage in critical dialogue about the world we inhabit. This platform reigns because of its unique feature of mass, instantaneous outreach and its ability to make currency out of content. But of what good is the form if the content is compromised? Why would we want news faster if it isn’t authentic and courageous and reflective of what is truly going on? Why would we want to hear or read at all, if we cannot speak?

Guided by these arguments, the Sampadak Parishad (Editors’ Council) and media practitioners expressed serious concern over sections 8, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 43 of the bill; but the law was enacted keeping the provisions intact.

The Editors’ Council reproduced provisions of the DSA that they found most dangerous. They listed the sections and provided their opinions on each of them. Below is a condensed and heavily summarised, but not compromised, version of their comments.

THE FUTURE IS CENSORED Ignoring the concerns of journalists and rights defenders, the Digital Security Act was passed in the parliament on September 19, 2019. It is known both at home and abroad to be draconian, antithetical to freedom of speech and democracy.

Matiur Rahman, editor of Prothom Alo and president of the Newspaper Owners’ Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) speaks to Md Shahnawaz Khan Chandan of Star Weekend about journalism in this age of technology, corporatisation and controlled politics.

“Predisposed journalism can never grow and sustain” Under your editorship, we got two leading newspapers in Bangladesh—Bhorer Kagoj and Prothom Alo. How did you plan the content of these newspapers, and their editorial structure and policy? How did you make them stand out in a market already occupied by several age-old, reputed newspapers?