Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star, has said that an overriding fear now shapes journalism in Bangladesh, where even a slight deviation from dominant narratives can invite attack.

Speaking to The Listening Post on Al Jazeera, Anam said, “Today, we have far more free mainstream media, more investigative stories. Independent thinking is definitely much more prominent than before. But that overriding fear -- that if I slightly deviate from the present popular narrative, I might be attacked -- also exists.

“To tell you frankly, we sometimes think very carefully, should I use this word or that word? This sort of thinking, which is against the culture of independent media, also exists, now.”

Reflecting on the attack on The Daily Star, the editor said the people who actually acted and set fire to the building were unlikely to be The Daily Star readers.

“So what motivated them?” Anam asked, adding, “I think it was well planned. They had their political motivation, financial motivation, and there was also the idea of demolishing the tradition of liberal journalism, journalism that supports democracy, multiplicity of views, and dissent, in a very big way.

“Our reporting, if it is flawed, somebody can say it. We can be criticised. But to burn us down, I think this is most unfortunate.”

He described the night of the attack as “absolute panic”. “They [the staff] were having problems breathing. I was talking to the newsroom over the phone, and they were telling me, ‘Mahfuz Bhai, we may not meet again’. They were ringing their parents, their wives, their friends, saying maybe they will never meet again,” described Anam.

Mahfuz Anam said many in Bangladesh use social media to express their views, but that this freedom has also produced “a huge amount of fake news, hate speech, [and] unsubstantiated accusations” just like anywhere else in the world.

He said using social media to attack and discredit individuals or institutions “is also a reality in Bangladesh,” adding that some political parties “have taken good advantage of it” by building dedicated “social media teams.”

“So if you say anything against this particular political party, suddenly hundreds of people will start abusing you,” Anam said. “And if you say something nice, again hundreds of people can start praising you. The political use of social media is very much in vogue.”

“It is well known to anybody who followed social media that night that there was one influencer who said, ‘Prothom Alo is down, now go to Daily Star and attack this’,” he described.

“They were trying to destroy us as an institution. And by the way, all the criticism that has been made against us has not been substantiated. Sometimes we were cited totally out of context. So it has been a very deliberate, very powerful, and, I must say, sadly effective way of continuing to denigrate two powerful mainstream media of Bangladesh,” continued Anam.

He spoke about how the politicisation of media has eroded public trust.

Over the years, journalists have become increasingly divided along political lines, with some openly aligning with one party and others with another, he said.

“So imagine that when the public sees that a journalist who is supposed to tell me the truth actually belongs to a political party, the credibility of that media outlet, the belief of the readers of a paper or viewers of a television, suffers greatly because of the political division within the journalist community,” the editor added.

Anam said that after being deprived of three credible elections, the public is now entering a fourth with heightened expectation and a strong desire to see a vote that genuinely reflects the people’s will.

“Whoever gets elected, they will not forget the fact about the fall of Hasina. And her fall was directly linked with the oppressive nature of her government, and her government’s treatment of the media,” he said.

He told Al Jazeera that the last 15 years of Sheikh Hasina’s governance “is epitomised by one act, which was called the Digital Security Act”.

“This encapsulates the government’s total dominance of dissent. They had twenty provisions for punishment, fourteen of which were non-bailable. So, the whole idea was to create an environment of fear. Society goes into a total period of silence,” said Anam.

He elaborated how the government spared no one -- from cartoonists and teachers arrested in midnight raids for innocuous social media posts to the systematic judicial harassment of the nation's leading editorial voices.

“I have had eighty-three cases launched against me by Hasina. Matiur Rahman, the editor of Prothom Alo, had a murder case allegation against him. Our advertisements were stopped, and our revenue dropped by about 40 to 45 percent. None of my reporters were ever allowed to cover the prime minister’s events, and she personally attacked me on the floor of the parliament,” explained Anam.

He expressed hope that this experience will shape future governments, leading to a brighter future for free media in Bangladesh.

The Listening Post featuring Mahfuz Anam will be re-aired on Al Jazeera tonight at 8:30 pm (Bangladesh time).