Internet blackout: How we overcame the hiccup in media coverage of recent crisis

During the period of mid-July to early August, Bangladesh was reeling from violence ensuing the quota reform protests and subsequent crackdown on the protesters by law enforcers under the recently ousted Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government. 

The situation had become so tense that even the country's internet was shut down for a period of five days.

Not only were the internet services halted but popular social media platforms were also blocked from operations, including Facebook, Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram.

The first time the Hasina-led government discontinued internet services, they claimed they had done so to stop rumours or misinformation from being circulated on social media centring the quota protests. 

According to media reports, two government agencies Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC) instructed internet to be shut down.

At that time, post, former state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak made calls over phone to shut down internet.

The government agencies didn't admit to doing this. Rather, Palak delivered different statements at different times. He brought forth the issue of arson attacks on the internet infrastructure.

On 5 August, Sheikh Hasina resigned from her position as prime minister and thus, her government fell like a house of cards.

Almost all sectors of the country, including businesses, banking, share markets and media, are reliant on steady internet connection nowadays. A disruption in internet services causes huge damage and losses to the country's economy, as almost all activities are disrupted during the outage. 

One such crucial sector is the media, which is heavily dependent on the internet for seamless flow of information. Not having an internet connection means the online sections of media houses, which continuously serve information to the public on a 24/7 basis, cannot function.

Due to the digital revolution in recent times, most people now consume news through the online portals of newspapers and TV channels. 

If the online sections remain shut, people become unable to access data, and the whole country turns into an information black hole. This is what happened during the first round of internet shutdown in Bangladesh, 18 July to 25 July, a complete disconnection between the readers and the information providers.

As a young journalist with two years of experience so far in media, I have never quite experienced something like this. The internet shutdown was imposed within a few days of my joining the online section of The Business Standard, and not having internet meant suddenly, I did not know how to proceed with my work. 

I was relieved when my boss called me one night and told me that although the online activities would remain suspended for the time being, the print version of the newspaper will continue to operate, and I could work and join the hustle. As I was sitting at home with no work at the time, I instantly said yes and went to the office the next day. The rest of what unfolded is history.

I had worked in the print media before. While I was working at The Daily Star back in 2021, I was responsible for writing and editing articles and editorials, which would come out in the Editorial and Opinion pages the next day. But even at that time, we used to rely heavily on the internet to use our software to process the texts written by us and turn them into digital versions.

I had no idea how newspapers used to be published when there was no internet, so when I reached office on the afternoon of 19 July, it was a whole new experience for me.
 
The next few days were both challenging and rewarding for me, as I got to learn how the print section of a newspaper operates in detail. I would sit at my desk with a notebook and a pen in my hand, and a reporter would call me and tell me what was going on in the streets. I would jot down the information, and then develop the entire story from there. It was all about my phone communication with the correspondent and there was no way we could check even a grammatical or data error on Google like we always did.

After preparing the report, I would keep it in a folder on the server, which didn't need internet connectivity to remain operational. The news editor then went through the report and assigned a sub-editor to finalise it. 

After preliminary editing, the news editor would go through it again, and send the news to the page layout team for page design. Once the page was done, we would get a printout and proofread the news for any spelling or grammatical error. Finally, we would give the corrections to the handler of the page layout and he would prepare the final version. The paper would then come out the next day. 

Once all the pages were completed, a digital copy would be created and inserted into a pen drive and the tiny device would then head out to the press, where the file would be extracted and taken for print out. 

After printing all the newspapers throughout the night, they would be taken to different parts of the city in emergency vehicles, usually through CNG-run auto-rickshaws and pickup vans, and there they would be distributed to hawkers, who would then deliver the papers to the doors of the subscribers the next morning.

This is how information reached the hands of the people from us, the newsmen, during the toughest of times. 

During those days without the internet, the idea was simple. No matter what happens, information must reach the people. This is what we journalists always do, pass on news to the public, especially in times of crisis.