[4]
Bangladesh has made strides in its development, including improvements in the political and economic sectors.
Elected and legitimate governments have become the rule and they are generally seen as representative of the public. However, threats to Bangladesh’s development remain – politics are highly partisan, governance is weak in many areas, social disparities remain, and corruption is endemic. The USAID-funded PROGATI program, implemented by IREX addresses these issues by focusing on strengthening media (especially the capacity of investigative journalists), civil society and citizen participation, and public institutions and parliament’s oversight and capacity. IREX serves as a subcontractor to DAI [5] on PROGATI to provide technical expertise for project activities to strengthen the media sector, particularly investigative journalism.
• Strengthening media to serve as an effective public watchdog
• Increase media capacity to report on transparency and corruption issues
• Increase media capacity to advocate for legal reform and freedom of information laws
•Increase citizen access to improved government information
• Improve dissemination of information by selected public institutions at the national and local level
• Building the capacity of investigative journalists
While Bangladesh possesses a vibrant media sector with private and public broadcast and print media competing for audience throughout the country, underlying weaknesses threaten its ability to develop professionally. The primary issues facing the media sector include a lack of consistent support for and training of investigative journalists; a legal environment that does not adequately protect journalists and media outlets and allow them to work freely; and difficulties for journalists and citizens to obtain access to public information from the government.
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Establishing a center for investigative journalism: The Journalism Training & Research Initiative [6] provides proper training, mentoring, research and support to working and aspiring journalists in order to build a culture of investigative journalism.
info@irex.org [7]