Petition Filed to Appoint Govt Administrators to Five Bashundhara Media Outlets

A formal application has been submitted to the government requesting the appointment of public administrators to oversee five major media outlets owned by East West Media Group, a subsidiary of the prominent conglomerate Bashundhara Group.

Supreme Court advocate M. Sarwar Hossain filed the petition on Monday, addressing the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, the Information Secretary, the Chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), and the Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka.

The legal practitioner confirmed that official copies of the application have also been forwarded to several key state departments, including the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministries of Law, Home Affairs, Land, and Housing and Public Works.

The petition alleges that the media organizations under question have compromised their journalistic integrity, describing them as "unprofessional" tools that operate as "instruments of a mafia network" engaged in "anti-state activities."

The application further outlines heavy institutional accusations against the parent company, Bashundhara Group, citing widespread illegal encroachment of rivers, canals, and wetlands. It also charges the conglomerate with running extortion rackets in residential zones, forging layout plans of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK), and laundering thousands of crores of embezzled bank loans directly to international hubs, including Dubai, Singapore, Cyprus, London, and Malaysia.

Consolidated Media Power Used to Shield Criminal Charges

Speaking to reporters in front of the Supreme Court Annex Building, Advocate M. Sarwar Hossain identified the five specific media platforms controlled by East West Media Group: the daily newspapers Kaler Kantho, Bangladesh Pratidin, and The Daily Sun, alongside the satellite television channel News24, and the online news portal Banglanews24.

The lawyer leveled direct criticisms against the conglomerate's top management and their sweeping influence over state operations.

"The Group's Chairman, Ahmed Akbar Sobhan [Shah Alam], has effectively established a state within a state. They have illegally occupied immense tracts of government land, potentially ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of bighas, an offense that is currently under active investigation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Furthermore, his sons have repeatedly committed various severe criminal offenses." — Advocate M. Sarwar Hossain

The petition claims that Bashundhara Group routinely weaponizes its media monopoly to systematically bury allegations of structural financial crimes and violence. The lawyer argued that whenever independent bodies raise questions regarding the group's alleged money laundering, land grabbing, rape, or murder cases, the management deploys all five media houses simultaneously to launch aggressive counter-propaganda campaigns and distribute defamatory, false narratives to silence critics.

Advocate Sarwar pointed out that such combined media pressure severely obstructs justice for victimized families seeking legal remedies, specifically referencing the hurdles faced by the family in the high-profile Munia rape and murder case. He noted that the group's absolute influence over the narrative left grieving families in positions where they struggled to even secure legal representation.

The petitioner, however, expressed clear professional sympathy for the working journalists employed across these five networks, clarifying that the individual reporters bear no personal blame as they are systemically forced by executive management to broadcast these unethical propaganda campaigns.

Demands for Professional Restoration Over Media Shutdown

When questioned by journalists whether the forced appointment of government administrators would constitute a direct interference with the freedom of the press, the Supreme Court lawyer rejected the notion, clarifying that his legal move does not seek the closure of these media operations. He emphasized that the goal is to keep the organizations fully functional while structurally liberating them from corporate abuse, thereby restoring core professionalism to the newsrooms.

Responding to queries regarding why he bypassed the Bangladesh Press Council to approach the ministry directly, Sarwar dismissed the statutory body as a toothless organization. He argued that the Press Council's legal jurisdiction is severely restricted to issuing mild warnings, lacking any enforcement powers to address massive corporate misconduct or cross-border financial crimes.

The legal practitioner concluded his briefing by announcing that if the interim government fails to initiate prompt administrative actions regarding his application, he will file a formal writ petition before the High Court Division to seek judicial intervention.