An exiled Bangladeshi journalist has claimed the current interim government of the country has systematically stifled the free press in Bangladesh since reports of attacks on Hindu minorities, Awami League members and supporters started to draw international attention following the collapse of the former PM Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, 2024.

Bangladeshi journalist Sumi Khan, who is currently staying in the US after escaping Bangladesh amid threat to her life in February, told The Print: "The Yunus administration has systematically stifled the free press in Bangladesh since news reports on attacks on minorities and Awami League leaders, workers and supporters were drawing international attention. And now, he has his own pliant media to obfuscate the truth."

She claimed that radical Islamist vigilante groups within Bangladesh “wanted to hang her in public for her news reports”.

“Immediately after, the clampdown on free media began with the arrests of senior journalists like Shyamal Datta, the editor of the daily newspaper Bhorer Kagoj, and Muzammil Babu, chief editor of Ekattor TV, one of the largest electronic media networks in Dhaka, on spurious charges,” she said.

She alleged that the interim government chief Muhammad Yunus-led administration has empowered the Jamaat to such an extent that they now control the media narrative.

“Whatever remains of the press has to simply relay that narrative with hardly any questions asked,” Khan said.

“I have credible information that some foreign journalists have been approached to publish positive stories of post-Hasina Bangladesh,” she alleged.

Sheikh Hasina-led government exited Bangladesh on October 5, 2024 amid severe protests against her government.

Hasina fled to India.