Journalists Defend Rights for All, Who Defends Their Rights?

Bangladesh’s journalists face job insecurity, unpaid wages, delayed Wage Board implementation and contractual employment, despite their legal status as workers. Even after the July uprising, they largely remained silent over their own rights, raising a stark question: who will speak for journalists?

Uncertain salaries and allowances
Journalism is increasingly precarious, with many media organisations withholding salaries, allowances and festival bonuses for months.

Despite the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Wage Boards, most journalists still lack regular pay. The 9th Wage Board, formed in 2019, recommended an 80-85% salary increase, but reportedly remains unimplemented except in state-owned outlets. Many organisations instead rely on contracts, fixing salaries at their “sweet will”, often at humiliating levels. 80% of journalists reportedly earn below Tk 10,000 a month, while many local correspondents receive nothing.

BFUJ Secretary General Quader Gani Chowdhury recently claimed that most media organisations do not follow the Wage Board, yet falsely claim compliance to secure advertisements.

Job insecurity
The deepest crisis is job insecurity, fuelled by contractual employment and arbitrary dismissal. It is eroding professional confidence and discouraging young people from entering journalism. A journalist-friendly labour policy is urgently needed.

Risk to life
Journalists often work without fair wages, safe conditions or basic labour rights. Reporting corruption, crime and abuse of power exposes them to physical attacks, murder, legal harassment and political pressure, while defamation cases and restrictive laws further imperil press freedom.

Law exists, enforcement does not
Bangladesh’s labour law recognises journalists and media employees as workers entitled to statutory wages, benefits and workplace protection.

Sections 143-149 of the Labour Act, 2006 provide for a Newspaper Workers Wage Board to fix minimum wages. Gazetted decisions are binding on employers, and wage disputes may be taken to the Labour Court.

Under Sections 97-98 of the Labour Rules, 2015, media workers are entitled to medical care up to Tk 2 lakh and dependants Tk 1 lakh, alongside annual health checks. Employers must bear the full cost of occupational injuries or diseases until recovery.

Reform initiatives
During the Interim Government, the Media Reform Commission proposed the Protection of Rights of Journalists Ordinance, 2025, while the Labour Reform Commission recommended risk allowances, insurance, pensions, replacing “newspaper worker” with “mass media worker”, monthly salary reporting and Grade 9 as journalists’ entry-level salary, with graduation as the minimum qualification. However, the Ordinance was not subsequently enacted by Parliament.

The matter of hope that the Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon recently called for structural reforms to ensure professional security, fair wages and retirement benefits. He said the government was working on a Wage Board and salary structure, while an independent National Media Commission was at the policy-making stage.

What change is needed
At a May Day event in 2018, Daily Observer Editor and journalist leader Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury called for a separate labour court, alleging that media owners were violating labour laws and denying journalists lawful benefits. He demanded Wage Board implementation, payment of arrears, an end to arbitrary layoffs and contractual employment, and stronger job security.

Other demands include a separate labour policy, fixed salary structure, risk allowances, health protection, legal aid and safe working conditions, with speedy justice for attacks and harassment.

Journalists bridge the state and its citizens and hold power to account. Yet those who speak for society remain insecure and undervalued. Protecting their rights, therefore, is not charity; it is a legal and professional obligation.