Yunus pushes for swift media overhaul

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Saturday assured immediate action on the Media Reform Commission’s proposals, vowing to reshape Bangladesh’s press landscape pronto.

“We’ll tackle what we can now,” he said at the State Guest House Jamuna, gripping a freshly submitted report from the commission’s head, journalist Kamal Ahmed. “

"We want to implement the reform proposals that are immediately implementable. For that, I would like the Reform Commission to submit the recommendations quickly that need to be done immediately or can be implemented quickly," he said.

  Yunus did not just nod at the report—he hailed it. “Kamal Ahmed’s team has done invaluable work,” he said, urging its spread beyond the newsroom to university journalism students. 

The commission, born November 18 to forge an independent, robust media, handed over its roadmap amid a room buzzing with its 11 members—thinkers, editors, TV brass, and a student voice. 

One snag caught his ear: Bangladeshi TV channels, tethered to a certain single satellite, vanish abroad. 

“Expats and foreigners can’t watch,” Kamal Ahmed flagged. Yunus did not flinch. “We’ll fix it,” he promised, eyeing a tweak to let Dhaka’s broadcasts beam globally. 

Outside Jamuna, Kamal Ahmed briefed reporters, Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam at his side. “We want quality papers, channels, and radios to thrive—fairly, transparently,” he said. But accountability cuts both ways. 

“Media demands it from politicians and bureaucrats—where’s ours?” Ownership’s a global riddle, he noted, yet here, it’s static—only newsroom faces swap to match the next regime’s rise. Reform, he hinted, means shaking that tree.  

The other members of the commission are: Professor Gitiara Nasreen of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Dhaka University, Shamsul Haque Zahid, Editor of The Financial Express and Representative of the Editors' Council, Anjan Chowdhury, Managing Director of Maasranga Television and representative of the Association of Television Owners (ATCO), Akhtar Hossain Khan, Secretary of the Newspaper Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB), Syed Abdal Ahmed, Former General Secretary of the National Press Club, Fahim Ahmed, CEO of Jamuna Television and Trustee of the Broadcast Journalist Center, Jimi Amir, Convener of the Media Support Network, Mostafa Sabuj, Bogra District Correspondent of the Daily Star, Titu Dutta Gupta, Deputy Editor of Business Standard, and Abdullah Al Mamun, Student Representative.