Zaffar Abbas, editor of Pakistan’s newspaper Dawn, has said that the crises surrounding media freedom, governance and corruption are largely similar across South Asian countries. He said the media in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India are all facing the same kinds of challenges.

Zaffar Abbas made the remarks this morning, Saturday, during the second session of the ‘Bangladesh Journalism Conference 2026’ at a hotel in the capital. The two-day international conference has been organised by Media Resources Development Initiative (MRDI).

The topic of the session was “Politico-Governance Ecosystem and Free Media”. The session was moderated by Shakhawat Liton, executive editor of The Business Standard.