Media in times of elections

Afsan Chowdhury writes for DOT : 
A sense of caution in reporting is the media air. Few know what is safe and what is not to report. Careful media is the hallmark now. Any perusal of media before and after the elections shows a significant shift. People took advantage of the electoral space to say and report much and also adding speculation as well. After the extreme electoral victory, laissez faire reporting has been reined in.
Politics in Bangladesh is primarily a business of the business class of the upper class variety. It takes crores to do politics and suffice to say that even today such people are not that many. But the middle class is excluded from the electoral political process. And this political middle class goes to media.
This middle class is again split into several kinds. One group constitutes the trade union activists who are just an inch away from being a full blown politician. They are politicians operating in the media space.
Another group is pro-party but also professional more or less. Of course there is the final group, who are the majority that is professionals doing a job like any other job and not into taking sides.
Media and other reactions
The first group was very sad or very happy with the electoral result. Since media ownership is largely pro-AL, there was much joy expressed and echoed by the supporters particularly in electronic media. The pro-BNP group expressed dismay and some of whom called it a fraudulent elections though no immediate evidence of that was given.
The second group was more relieved than happy that it was a peaceful election but at least some seem to be not so sure that the clean sweep was that clean or a sweep. Since field reports were saying that there was going to be tough contest and opinions polls- even though not very credible- gave BNP upto 50 seats. Thus the overwhelming victory was unexpected. Many held their glee or pain in check. They are also worried about the consequences of such an overwhelming victory in terms of expansion or reduction of the political space.
The third group was more or less the same but also asked whether audience confidence could be an issue or not. They had predicted a hard contest so the one sided elections results they saw was a blot on their quality of work. Thus increasingly reticence was the main strategy followed once results were declared.
Almost three weeks after the polls, the atmosphere is thawing. Meanwhile, many international and national groups have questioned the quality of the elections. TIB has once again become the focus of AL hate as they have reported that in 47 of the 50 centres they surveyed, people said the polls were rigged. The UN , the US , EU etc have also expressed somewhat unhappy observations on the polls. However, many national leaders have congratulated the government.
A very confident government
Practically speaking, criticism will not bother the Government much if at all. The only thing that matters globally is success and a stable government for international business to go on. And that is where Hasina is going to focus. And the two countries that matter, India and China , care very little about polls as long as their interests are served and policies are continued.
The Government meanwhile has a presence in the media scene to ensure that its not hyper critical. The arrest and charging under the Digital Security Act on election reporting has shown that if the government feels threatened they will act quickly. So till the evidence bag is full with real proof, the media will be cautious in criticizing.
For the moment even suggesting there has been hanky-panky will be considered a political act. Politicians have called it many names but media has not conducted any in-depth reports till date which is a puzzle.
What media can do best is ask itself, what could it have done better in reporting the elections. Or is it possible to report any better given all the equations that are at work now ?. If so , how?
Afsan Chowdhury is a researcher and political analyst