When Expectations Do Not Meet Reality: Bangladesh’s News Media Before and After the 2024 Uprising

Existing research shows that news media in authoritarian and hybrid settings often operate within structures of repression, where legal restrictions, coercive pressure, and ownership interests encourage self-censorship and regime-supportive journalism. Engaging with these debates, this study compares news media practices in Bangladesh before and after the 2024 uprising, showing how sources of pressure shifted while media structure remained intact. It makes two arguments: first, regime change alone does not transform media behaviour when the political economy of the media remains intact; second, when power shifts but media structures remain unchanged, journalists and media organisations adjust to the political environment rather than becoming structurally independent. Based on interviews with journalists, media experts, and professionals, the article shows that in pre-uprising Bangladesh, journalists faced state-centred pressure, including cyber laws, security-force intimidation, and indirect control through ownership and advertising. After the uprising, overt state pressure appears reduced, but media actors continued to practise caution amid a climate of invisible fear, including fear of mobs, backlash, and being labelled sympathisers of the fallen regime. At the same time, the business-political nexus of media ownership, advertising dependence, and weak professional autonomy continue to shape news production. Previously uncritical news media, shaped by owners’ business and political alignments, now appear to adjust their loyalties to the changed political environment. The article contributes to debates on media behaviour in hybrid regimes by showing that regime change does not automatically produce media transformation when fear, ownership power, and politico-commercial dependence continue to shape journalism.