Only 86 newspapers being published, 254 shut down

Under the prevaling pandemic, only 86 newspapers are being published in the 8 divisional towns and concerned districts of the country, including Dhaka. According to records of the government’s Department of Films and Publications (DFP), 340 newspapers are officially published from these divisional towns and districts. That means, 254 newspapers have shut down at present.

DFP’s latest records of 1 January 2020 show that there are 552 daily newspapers registered on the media list in the country. There are a few hundred more outside of this list. These newspapers have approval for publication but do not receive government advertisements. Almost all of these newspapers have now closed down.

In Dhaka, salaries and allowances are not being paid regularly by the newspaper offices, other than seven Bangla newspapers and four English. Some newspapers have even held up salaries for a few months. Many newspapers have stopped the printed edition or are printing on a smaller scale in a bid to survive. The online news portals are in an even worse condition, with only a couple managing to pay their staff wages.

There are 254 daily newspapers on the media list for Dhaka city and district. However, during the coronavirus pandemic, only 32 are being published. According to the rules of publication, a copy of each newspaper must be submitted to the DFP registration office.

Before the coronavirus outbreak, a minimum of 350 newspapers would be submitted to the DFP registration office daily. This has fallen by 60, to 134 on Wednesday. So official records indicate over 200 newspapers are closed.

Newspapers under threat

The newspaper industry is under serious threat. Except for five or six newspapers, the others were under threat from beforehand. The national budget did not take the demands of the Newspaper Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) into consideration.

The profession, lives and livelihood of journalists, under the coronavirus circumstances, have become more precarious than ever before. The newspaper industry is going through a crisis, riddled with lay-offs, irregular payment of wages and mounting arrears.

Around 1000 journalists have applied for the down payment of Tk 10,000 announced by the government. According to sources of Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ), this number may increase or decrease. Information minister Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday launched this initiative where unemployed journalists, those who have lost their jobs and those who are not receiving wages, will be given Tk 10,000 each.

Dhaka Reporters Unity last Eid drew up a list of reporters who had lost their jobs, were unemployed and were not receiving wages. There were 275 on the list. This number has now exceeded 350. Many are not even enlisting themselves out of embarrassment, ashamed to accept ‘handouts’. Around 500 reporters, at the initiative of Dhaka Reporters Unity, availed government ration. The unity has 1,810 members.

Almost no district newspapers

Before the coronavirus outbreak in March, Dhaka’s newspaper agents and hawkers would distribute 55 different newspapers. The remaining 200 or so may have been on the DFP list, but were not sold. There were referred to as wall newspapers or underground newspapers. These newspapers would be delivered for free to DFP, the district administrations and certain government offices. With the outbreak of coronavirus, printing of these newspapers came to a halt and these are now closed.

The editor of one such newspaper, on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo, “These small newspapers are basically brought out for government ads and supplements. Some use these newspapers to harass their rivals. But now with no advertisements, no writings, all of these have shut down.”

According to Prothom Alo’s divisional offices, 138 newspapers are officially published in the seven divisional towns and concerned districts outside of Dhaka. Of these, 86 are on the DFP list. Now, however, only 54 are published. These include 3 in Chattogram, 2 in Sylhet, 11 in Mymensingh, 4 in Rangpur, 4 in Khulna, 8 in Rajshahi and 22 in Barishal. At least 20 of these 54 are published on a limited scale or are irregular, depending on advertisements.

Under these dire circumstances, in other districts newspapers have almost all shut down. No newspapers are now brought out from Maulvibazar and Habiganj. Only one of Sunamganj’s 7 newspapers is being published. It is the same all over the country.

According to DFP, there are 298 daily enlisted newspapers outside Dhaka, of which only 14 are being submitted to DFP. That means the others have shut down.

In the seven divisions

There is approval for the publication of 24 newspapers in Chattogram and 16 are on the DFP list. Three are being published now and three have stopped print and are only online. There are around 850 journalists in Chattogram city and districts.

Khulna has approval for the publication of 21 newspapers, with 17 being published before the coronavirus outbreak. There are 11 on the DFP media list. Only four are being published now. Khulna has 387 journalists.

Rajshahi has 14 newspapers. Due to coronavirus 8 are being published on a limited scale. Ten newspapers of Rajshahi are on the DFP list. Rajshahi has 404 journalists.

From Sylhet, 16 newspapers are published, with 11 on the DFP media list. Two are being published on a small scale.

There are 35 newspapers in Barishal, with 16 on the DFP media list. For some time now, 22 are being published on a limited small. There are 500 journalists in Barishal.

Rangpur town and district has 14 newspapers with 7 on the DFP media list. The district has 126 journalists and 42 photojournalists.

Mymensingh has 19 newspapers, 11 of which are enlisted with DFP. Presently 11 are being published, though mostly on a small scale.

Cut down in number of copies

The number of copies of the newspapers had been cut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. Advertisements has also been slashed to almost nil. With the list of the lockdown, the number of copies has increased to an extent and advertisements are coming back.

Under the prevailing circumstances, NOAB, Bangladesh Sangbadpatra Parishad, the Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO), Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ) and Dhaka Reporters Unity placed various demands and proposals to the government to protect the media, but the government has not accepted these.

Secretary of the Dhaka Sangbadpatra Hawkers Bahumukhi Samabay Samity, Mohammad Abdul Mannan, speaking to Prothom Alo, said, “Newspaper sales had fallen considerably during the lockdown, but have started picking up again. Hawkers are coming back to work. We are also trying to face the challenge and reach the readers again.”

Media experts say the newspapers depend on various supporting factors. The media depends basically on circulation and advertisements.

Veteran journalist and former editor Reazuddin Ahmed, speaking to Prothom Alo, said, there is no easy solution to the ongoing crisis. The newspaper industry depends on economy and business. If the economy is revived and business is back to normal, perhaps then the newspaper industry will gradually turn around again. But it is not possible to predict when this will happen.

Reazuddin Ahmed went on to say that the government will do nothing for the media in this crisis, so there is no point in taking this into consideration. The government could have directly helped in the payment of arrear bills, providing loans, curbing taxes and duty on newsprint, but these matters remain unresolved. So efforts to move ahead must be taken based on the assumption that no assistance will come from the government.

Prothom Alo’s Chattogram, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barishal, Rangpur and Mymensingh offices have helped in providing information for the compilation of this report.