DW Akademie successfully introduced the media industry’s most-awaited “Independent Journalism” course in Bangladesh, the first of its kind in South Asia. It is the first of many guides for aspiring journalists, content creators transitioning into journalism, early-career reporters, students, and professionals seeking to build independent media careers.
This program takes nearly one and a half years to outline this most-awaited module from scratch and deliver it through training sessions.
Journalism educator Zulker Naeen meticulously wrote this 30-hour training module, profoundly designed the lecture sessions, and conducted the in-person training sessions. Another independent journalist, Nasir Tamzid, co-authored this training module.
This training module uniquely includes: foundations of independent journalism and editorial integrity; solutions journalism approaches; cross-platform storytelling and audience engagement; monetisation strategies and sustainable revenue models; and portfolio building and professional pitching skills.
Around fifteen (15) university fellows and 15 aspiring journalists from Rajshahi, Cumilla, Khulna, Barishal, and Chattogram participated in this 30-hour, hands-on training, working with nothing more than pen and paper.
The workshop ran from 8 to 12 July 2026. They worked, deliberately, with nothing more than pen and paper, a choice of pedagogy that mirrored the resourcefulness independent reporters are so often asked to practise in the field.
In doing so, it lays the first stone of what its organisers describe as a school of independent journalism for the country: a sustained training pathway rather than a single seminar, aimed at aspiring journalists, content creators moving into reporting, early-career professionals and students who want a media career built outside the conventional newsroom hierarchy.
South Asia Centre for Media in Development (SACMID) successfully implemented this program in Bangladesh.
The program is one of the pioneering initiatives of DW Akademie’s Journalism of the Future initiative in Asia, launched in 2024 with backing from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
It is the first initiative of its kind to arrive at a moment when independent, freelance and platform-native journalism is expanding rapidly across South Asia, even as formal training structures for it remain thin.
Read more: “Independent Journalism” module for future media professionals
