Despite legal indemnities, digital censorship and corporate pressure, the media in Bangladesh have gradually built a counter-narrative that exposed the fragility of the energy sector’s development model, according to a study by the Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network.
analysing 16,278 news contents published in newspapers and online platforms on power and energy issues over the last decade, the study said the media have established that the energy crisis was not an accident of nature but a failure of governance. ‘The past decade of energy journalism in Bangladesh is a story of resilience,’ reads the study titled ‘Narrative Arc of Energy: A Decade of Media Discourse in Bangladesh (2015-2025)’, which was presented recently at a session of the Bangladesh Energy Conference at Bangladesh Military Museum.
the study said media coverage of energy issues was dominated by state-driven ‘announcement journalism’ between 2015 and 2019. The global energy crisis of 2022, however, marked a turning point, shifting narratives from technical supply issues to political debates on affordability, accountability and corruption.