‘The Fourth Estate will not survive unless defended’
Martin Moore and Thomas Colley, authors of Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News (2025), discuss how governments worldwide manipulate the media, reshape public perception, and construct competing realities in an age of digital disinformation. The interview was conducted by Shamsuddoza Sajen of The Daily Star.
2 November 2025, 05:00 AM
‘The Fourth Estate will not survive unless defended’
Martin Moore and Thomas Colley, authors of Dictating Reality: The Global Battle to Control the News (2025), discuss how governments worldwide manipulate the media, reshape public perception, and construct competing realities in an age of digital disinformation. The interview was conducted by Shamsuddoza Sajen of The Daily Star.
2 November 2025, 05:00 AM
Reading power: How everyday texts shaped life under the British Empire
At the heart of Required Reading are forgotten readers from the past.
28 October 2025, 10:46 AM
Opinion / Whom will the Awami League supporters vote for?
The Awami League (AL) is very likely to haunt the entire exercise.
16 October 2025, 03:00 AM
A voice of resistance, progressive thought falls silent
Badruddin Umar, the eminent public intellectual, historian, and political activist, passed away in Dhaka yesterday at the age of 94. He breathed his last at Bangladesh Specialised Hospital, Shyamoli, around 10:05am. He was suffering from old-age complications.
7 September 2025, 18:10 PM
Badruddin Umar speaks / 'We must not lose focus from real political barriers'
Hasina took dynasty politics to levels we could not have ever imagined. What happened to Sheikh Mujib’s former residence was unfortunate. But I would say that Sheikh Hasina is partly responsible for the incident.
7 September 2025, 08:22 AM
The 36th day of July / August 5, 2024: The day the people triumphed
August 5 became a watershed in Bangladesh’s history -- the climactic peak of the July uprising.
4 August 2025, 18:10 PM
The July that rocked Bangladesh / August 4, 2024: The deadliest day of the uprising
August 4, 2024 marked the deadliest day of Bangladesh’s student-led uprising, as the non-cooperation movement entered an explosive new phase.
3 August 2025, 18:08 PM
Reading as a form of resistance: Some anecdotes from the 1971 war
After the war, the library authorities placed advertisements requesting people to return any books from the library that they might have in their possession, but the response was poor. The library's hundred-year-old collection was lost forever.
23 March 2023, 03:31 AM
Rakhine is boiling again. Will we look away?
After a two-year pause, the conflict between the Arakan Army (AA) and Myanmar’s military junta has resurged in Rakhine.
27 October 2022, 17:00 PM
Can we reimagine rivers before it is too late?
It is a tragic irony that riverine Bangladesh has become the land of dying rivers.
24 September 2022, 19:30 PM
When the state defeats its people
The draconian Digital Security Act (DSA) strikes again, and most worryingly, in collusion with communal bigotry.
13 September 2022, 12:11 PM
PM Hasina’s India visit 2022: Will India ever reciprocate our favour?
This time also, there is no major gain from PM Hasina's visit.
7 September 2022, 14:27 PM
What impact did the Partition have on Dhaka's book trade?
The impact of the 1947 Partition was felt in every aspect of Dhaka's printing and publishing business, and the book trade in the new provincial capital took a momentous turn. How did it impact the booksellers, printers, and the material being published?
26 August 2022, 13:07 PM
How Partition impacted the Dhaka book trade
With the expansion of the publishing business, bookshops also sprang up in various parts of Old Dhaka, particularly in Chawkbazar, Islampur, Mughaltuli and Patuatuli. It is estimated that the number of bookshops in Dhaka till 1900 were no less than 40.
19 August 2022, 10:06 AM
The testimony of Manik Mia
After the death of journalist Tofazzal Hossain, popularly known as Manik Mia, politician, journalist and litterateur Abul Mansur Ahmad wrote in a commemorative article titled “Jati Je Manik Harailo,” “It didn’t take us long to understand (what a gem we had lost); the countrymen understood it much later.”
31 May 2022, 18:00 PM
Tea workers’ suffering is not just a labour issue
On May 20, 1921, around 3,000 tea labourers were waiting at Chandpur railway station.
19 May 2022, 18:00 PM
‘Long delays defeat the purpose of justice’
Prof Abul Quasem Fazlul Huq, the Ahmad Sharif professor at the Department of Bangla in the University of Dhaka, speaks about the verdict on Prof Humayun Azad murder case, which came out yesterday, and the overall situation in Bangladesh in a conversation with Shamsuddoza Sajen and Priyam Paul of The Daily Star.
13 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Songs of our soil: In praise of Mymensingh’s Bangla folk ballads
Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong. Folk-ballads are living archives that represent the imagination, values, ideas, and aesthetics of the people to whom they belong.
13 April 2022, 18:00 PM
Carole Angier on writing the biography of WG Sebald
In Speak, Silence: In Search of W.G. Sebald (Bloomsbury, 2021), you write that the author’s British publisher, Christopher MacLehose, was in a dilemma to decide on Sebald’s genre of writing. After writing about his novel and his life for so long, how would you define Sebald’s genre?
6 April 2022, 18:00 PM
“Most of the commentators are unaware of the importance of the events between 1948 and 1952.”
Badruddin Umar: As a general student, I participated in every public event of the Language Movement in 1952. On February 21, for example,
20 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh wins freedom
The Liberation War in Bangladesh formally ended with the unconditional surrender by the Pakistan army in Dhaka today.
15 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Bhutto walks out in tears
In a letter dated December 15, 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi expressed her deep frustration to US President
14 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Malik cabinet resigns en masse
The entire regional government of East Pakistan headed by Dr AM Malik resigned today, disassociating itself from the central administration of Pakistan President Yahya Khan.
13 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Third Soviet veto bars truce plan
In a letter to the UN Secretary General U Thant, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said “there can be a ceasefire and withdrawal of Indian armed forces” if Pakistan withdraws its troops from Bangladesh and reaches a political solution with the leaders there.
12 December 2021, 18:00 PM
India, Russia discuss Bangladesh war
Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily V Kuznetsov held talks on Bangladesh with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi today in New Delhi.
11 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Pakistan general sends SOS to UN
The Bangladesh government today banned four communal parties -- the Muslim League, the Jamaet-i-Islami, the Nizami Islam and the People’s Democratic Party. The announcement was made by acting president Syed Nazrul Islam in Jashore.
10 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Mitro Bahini closing in on Dhaka
In a backchannel message, Henry Kissinger, the US president’s Assistant for national security affairs, informed US
9 December 2021, 18:00 PM