Bangladesh, with almost 120 million registered voters, has experienced a steady decline in civil liberties and democratic accountability mechanisms, as per democracy tracking reports. It has been categorised as an ‘Electoral Autocracy’ by V-Dem since 2018 and as ‘Partly Free’ by Freedom House in its reports since start. This decline is especially so in freedom of speech and expression, internet freedom, and press freedom. It is largely attributed to consolidation of executive power, sustained harassment of the opposition, targeting and persecution of critical civil society actors, and discrimination against religious minorities, and refugees. It scored 165/180 countries in Reporter without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index and 41/100 in Freedom of the Net 2023 report.
The major reason for declining speech rights and press freedom has been the Digital Security Act/DSA 2018 (specifically sections 25, 29, 31, and 35) that has been used till its replaced by the Cyber Security Act/CSA in 2023 to criminalise online content by critics and opponents of the government and ruling party.
In June 2024, student demonstrations against a discriminatory reservation scheme, snowballed into a movement for democratic reform and removal of the autocratic regime of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The regime tried to brutally repress the protesters by unleashing their lethal forces including the police, the Border Guard, the Rapid Action Battalion, and Awami League Party activists. The protests continued unabated. The army chief and his generals soon refused to open fire on protesters to enforce curfew. On 05 August, the Prime Minister stepped down and fled the country. A new interim government led by Novel Laureate Muhammad Yunus faces daunting challenges of dealing with deep-rooted corruption, attacks on minorities, and reforming a government system accused of gross human rights violations. Fake news has surged during this period aggravating socio-political tensions. The new government would need to balance stringent counter-dis/misinformation measures while improving the country's human rights and press freedom record. The role of civic actors becomes more crucial as accountabilty holders and facilitators of democratization in this transitional period.
