Consultant- To Develop Freedom of Expression Report on Bangladesh
For ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia

Name of Organization: Article19 Bangladesh and South Asia
Responsible to: Regional Director, ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia
Key relationships: Programme team, ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia and HR and Admin. Officer, ARTICLE 19
Application Deadline: 20th April 2024
Payment and Benefits: BDT 11,85,000 for the Contract Period
Focal Contact Person : HR & Admin Officer, ARTICLE 19
Location : ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh Office
​Duration: 30 April 2024 to 30th June 2024, duration may be changed during the contract period

​About Us
​
Established in 1987, ARTICLE 19 works for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear or discrimination. Our mission is to promote and defend the universal human rights of freedom of expression and information around the world, through international advocacy and legal analysis, and regional and national projects.
ARTICLE 19 is a global organization, with a strong presence in the Global South, recruiting local staff and establishing strong and operationally autonomous national and regional offices. These offices have helped the organization strengthen relationships with civil society, better understand regional and national challenges, and respond more swiftly to opportunities and crises.
The Bangladesh and South Asia Regional Office of ARTICLE 19 is located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Its International Office is located in London.

Project Scope:
““Journalists with enhanced safety and security-JESS” is a 2-year project funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) to ensure the protection & safety of journalists, especially women journalists from both external and internal threats, harassment, abuse, and other forms of violence in Bangladesh. This project mainly addresses the safety of journalists to prevent discrimination, online-offline harassment, bullying, sexual harassment in media houses, and external threats. The JESS project also focuses on strengthening protection protocols and safety mechanisms in media houses ensuring safety of journalists. Firstly, Bolster the resilience of journalists, especially women and marginalized journalists. Secondly, make media houses safer workplaces and increase their protection mechanism for journalists to mitigate external threats. Thirdly, advocate with the Government of Bangladesh to comply with its responsibility of upholding the safety of journalists and media freedom.
Project Outcome:

  1. Outcome 1: Journalists, and in particular women and journalists from marginalized communities, have improved skills in digital and physical security and access to support to protect themselves in their everyday work.
  2. Outcome 2: Media houses adopt internal non-discrimination policies and, safeguarding protocols and other mechanisms to protect their employees from workplace harassment and external threats.
  3. Outcome 3: Civil society is more coordinated in its efforts to put pressure on the GoB to uphold safety of journalists and media freedom through engagement in national and international advocacy.

Scope of Work:
The overall objective of this report is to analyse and observe the violence and threats inflicting upon journalists who exercise the freedom of expression and freedom of information in Bangladesh. Also, to identify the trend of violations by state and non-state actors and specific recommendations to way forward from the existing situation. ARTICLE 19 has been monitoring freedom of expression situation in Bangladesh since 2013. Based on the ARTICLE 19 data from 2019 to 2023, the Commissioned consultant requires to produce a comprehensive Fredoom of Expression Report on Bangladesh.
The commissioned consultant will consider the following issues while preparing the report –

  1. Executive summary of the report.
  2. Methodology of the report and data analysis.
  3. Introduction and background regarding existing situation of FoE, FoI, and FoAA, safety of journalists (legal and circumstantial).
  4. Short analysis of international and national human rights framework regarding the duty of the state to respect and protect right to freedom of expression and press freedoms, as well as other rights in broadly.
  5. Analysis of failure (of the state) to respect (the rights of journalists) – cases of attacks by state actors, as well as groups acting with the authorisation, consent, or acquiescence of the state.
    1. extrajudicial and/or arbitrary killings; murder, intimidation and threat, torture and ill-treatment; arbitrary arrests and detentions; enforced disappearances; destruction of property; suppression of freedom of expression; suppression of freedom of association & assembly – information from protest; misuse of laws
  6. Failure (of the state) to protect (the rights of journalists) – all cases that refer to non-state actors to be included under this heading-
    1. failure to prevent attacks.
    2. failure to ensure accountability for attacks by third parties.
  7. Analysis of violations should be segregated-
    1. national and grassroots level.
    2. print, electronic and online media.
    3. Perpetrators of violations and victims of violations.
  8. Visualizing topics through charts and pie charts, info graphs, etc-
    1. Number of different types of violations.
    2. Percentage of violations by category.
    3. Percentage of different groups of perpetrators.
    4. State actors vs. non-state actors.
    5. Year by year trend of violation from 2019-2023.
    6. Changing pattens of violations.
  9. Analysis of challenges due to advancement of communication and information technology-
    1. Surveillance.
    2. Digital safety and security i.e. hacking, phishing.
    3. Artificial intelligence.
    4. Data security.
    5. Fake news and hate speech.
  10. Interact map of the violations throughout Bangladesh
  11. Conclusion and recommendations

Any other note or condition
Any documents, analysis, report, data frame, tools, formats, checklists, or any information entrusted to or produced in connection with this consultancy shall be handed over to ARTICLE 19. All tasks and assignments shall be strictly the property of ARTICLE 19 and cannot be disclosed or used for any other purpose. This provision shall remain valid even after the completion of the assignment.
Other terms and conditions will be governed by the Policies of ARTICLE 19 Bangladesh and South Asia Regional Office as stated time to time.

Timeframe of Deliverables:

  1. A comprehensive and detailed report on Freedom of Expression for 2019-2023. The report will be in English.
  2. An inception report with a clear work plan setting out the approach and timeline for the delivery of every activity.
  3. Draft freedom of expression report on Bangladesh.
  4. A presentation on the draft freedom of expression report on Bangladesh before ARTI LE 19.
  5. Final freedom of expression report after comprehending ARTICLE 19 feedback and comments on the draft report.

Consultancy Fee and Payment Schedule:

A consultancy fee of not exceeding BDT 11,85,000/- (In word: Taka Eleven Lacs Eighty-Five Only, including all VAT and Tax) for this assignment during contract period will be payable to the selected Consultant. The deliverables must be collated with the invoices before collecting the final payments.

Payment will be made through A/C Payee cheque/ EFT within 15 (fifteen) working days upon satisfactorily services received/completion of work and submission of invoice collated with relevant documents.

Payment Mode:
First payment – 40%, after signing the consultancy contract.
Final payment – balance 60%, after submission of final report.

Required Qualifications and Expertise:

  1. This consultancy is offered to the Bangladeshi Nationals only and the consultancy firms interested to send proposals must be registered under the regulations of Govt. of Bangladesh.
  2. Having a comprehensive idea about the journalists’ safety (online and offline), media, civic space, freedom of expression and information and challenges of freedom of expression and information.
  3. Having an extensive knowledge Bangladeshi law relating to freedom of expression and information, international human rights standards on freedom of expression, protection of journalists – especially female journalists, international human rights mechanism etc.
  4. Must be a team player with the ability to coordinate and prioritize the needs of the team.
  5. Prior experience of preparing reports in international standard.
  6. Excellent Bangla and English writing skills.

 

ARTICLE 19 Will Provide:
ARTICLE 19 will provide the following support to the Consultant during the assignment period:

  1. Provide relevant information and documents to complete the assignment to the consultant (as needed).
  2. It will be expected from the consultant to share the plan of action, developments, reports and reviews as the progression of work and receive feedback, guidance as appropriate.
  3. Outputs and drafts will be reviewed with verbal and written comments and guidance that will be expected to be addressed and incorporated into various drafts of outputs including the final deliverables.

How to Apply:

Persons/firms wishing to be considered for this consultancy are invited to submit:

  1. technical and financial proposal along with a cover letter.
  2. resume/portfolio stating relevant experiences, and expertise.
  3. a summary of the previous work (samples of previously done similar works)
  4. a one pager of your understanding of the assignment.
  5. consultancy firms must submit the relevant legal entitlements, such as copy of trade license, copy of BIN certificate or VAT registration and TIN Certificate.

Application Deadline: 20th April 2024

To apply, please click here