Diganta Television (; ) is a Bangladeshi Bengali-language privately owned

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

and cable news television channel founded in 2007. The channel is owned by Diganta Media Corporation Ltd, which also owns the daily newspaper ''

Daily Naya Diganta The ''Daily Naya Diganta'' () is a Bengali daily newspaper published in Bangladesh since 2004. History It is part of Diganta Media Corporation, which was owned by Mir Quasem Ali, politician of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The television channel, Dig ...

''. Diganta Television officially began broadcasting on 28 August 2008, and was shut down along with Islamic TV on 6 May 2013 for reporting on the killing of protesters on the night of 5 to 6 May 2013 on the order of the ousted Prime Minister

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina (''née'' Wazed; born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Bangladesh from June 1996 to July 2001 and again from January 2009 to August 2024. Premiership of Sheikh Hasina, Her ...

and her government run by

Awami League The Awami League, officially known as Bangladesh Awami League, is a major List of political parties in Bangladesh, political party in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played the leading role in achievin ...

History

Closure

During the

2013 Shapla Square protests The Shapla Square protests, also known as the Siege of Dhaka, Operation Shapla, and Operation Flash Out by security forces, was the protests and subsequent shootings of protesters on 5 and 6 May 2013 at Shapla Square, located in the Motijheel ...

, as the channels were reporting on police action following the rally of

Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh () is a Deobandi Islamist advocacy group consisting mostly of religious teachers (''Ulama'') and students in Bangladesh. The group is mainly based on qawmi madrasas in Bangladesh. In 2013, they submitted a 13-point ch ...

, the

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) () is an independent commission founded under the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulation Act, 2001 (Act no. 18 of 2001). The commission is responsible for regulating all matters related ...

forced Diganta Television off the air, along with Islamic TV, on 6 May 2013, at about 4:30am. The chief reporter of the channel, M. Kamruzzaman, said that around 25 plain-clothed policemen and an official from the broadcast commission had entered their studios without warning at dawn. According to

Information Minister An information minister (also called minister of information) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with information matters; it is often linked with censorship and propaganda. Sometimes the position is given t ...

Hasanul Haq Inu Hasanul Haq Inu (born 12 November 1946) is a Bangladeshi politician and the former Minister of Information of Bangladesh. He leads a faction of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal and was involved in a Marxist insurgency in the 1970s. Early life and ...

, it was taken off the air as its reporting on the raid on Hefazat contained "irresponsible exaggerations and misinformation to inflame public opinion, a violation of the conditions of its license." Critics have alleged this an instance of the Sheikh Hasina government of using the Islamist issue to silence dissidents. Although the channels were shut down, their licenses have not been revoked. Former Information and Broadcasting Minister

stated that no fixed decision was made regarding the licenses of Diganta Television and Islamic TV, calling both of them "riot instigators" while stating the reason behind the ban, which was incitement against the government.

Tentative return to broadcasting

Following Sheikh Hasina's resignation on 5 August 2024 caused by the anti-government protests in Bangladesh, all the former staff members went to the headquarters of Diganta Television for the first time since its closure the following day. Discussions to resume broadcasts of the channel took place there. Dhaka Reporters Unity demanded immediate reinstation of all unjustly closed media outlets in Bangladesh, including Diganta Television. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting later withdrew the closure order of Diganta Television and allowed the channel to return to the air once again. Ziaul Kabir Sumon, the chief news editor, stated that after getting a

Bangladesh Satellite-1 The Bangladesh Satellite-1 (BS-1) formerly known as Bangabandhu Satellite-1 (BS-1) is the first Bangladeshi geostationary communications and broadcasting satellite. It was manufactured by Thales Alenia Space and launched on 12 May 2018 from Ken ...

frequency after applying to the BTRC, Diganta would officially go on the air after over a decade of absence.

Programming

Diganta Television mostly aired news programming for sixteen hours per day. Other than that, other types of programming were aired on the channel.

List of programming

References