A milestone for open knowledge: Bangladesh Press Information Department releases 50,000+ images to the public domain

The Press Information Department (PID) of Bangladesh has recently taken a landmark step by releasing its vast image archive under the public domain. These photographs, captured by PID staff during government programs and official events, are now explicitly available for public use.

On its official website, PID has published the following notice:

Unless Otherwise stated, media files such as images, videos, and audio on this website are owned by the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and are in the public domain.
— Press Information Department, Bangladesh

This important development is the result of sustained advocacy by Wikimedia Bangladesh, who engaged in discussions with government officials, including the Chief Advisor’s Press Secretary, Shafiqul Alam. Thanks to these efforts, the PID archive, containing more than 50,000 photographs with detailed captions and dates, has become a treasure trove for the Wikimedia community and the public at large.

For many years, Wikimedians in Bangladesh faced difficulties illustrating articles about government officials, institutions, and state programs due to the unavailability of freely licensed media. With this release, those challenges are greatly reduced. Editors can now enrich articles with authentic, high-quality images of national leaders, public events, and historical moments, strengthening the reliability and visual appeal of Wikimedia projects.

This move not only supports the Wikimedia mission of free knowledge but also sets an inspiring precedent for how governments can contribute to open culture. The PID’s commitment ensures that future generations will have unrestricted access to a rich visual record of Bangladesh’s governance and history.

Next steps: bringing PID images to Commons

The Wikimedia community in Bangladesh is now working to import the PID images to Wikimedia Commons with proper categorization and metadata so they can be widely reused across Wikimedia projects. Already, some images have been uploaded, and the effort will continue to make this valuable collection more accessible and better organized for editors worldwide.