Interim government press secretary Shafiqul Alam has strongly criticized certain Bangladeshi media outlets for publishing fabricated and baseless stories. In a verified Facebook post, he singled out the newspaper Manabzamin and its editor Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, accusing them of disregarding journalistic ethics. Alam compared the situation to the UK, where tabloids face heavy fines for defamation, arguing that in Bangladesh, such accountability is absent. He claimed that some editors hide behind the notion of press freedom to avoid responsibility for false reporting. Alam also stated that since the interim government took office, journalists have enjoyed unprecedented freedom, even to comment critically on the military, but some still exaggerate claims of media repression. He questioned the depth of human rights groups’ investigations into alleged attacks on journalists.