Media in Bihar

Media in Bihar started with Bihar Bandhu, the first Hindi newspaper published in Bihar^{[citation needed]}.

Bihar Bandhu was launched in 1872 by Keshav Ram Bhatta, a Maharashtrian Brahman who had settled in Biharsharif. Hindi journalism in Bihar, and specially Patna, made little headway at the time due to lack of respect for the Hindi language. Many Hindi publications did not last, or were shelved before launching. Hindi journalism also acquired wisdom and maturity, elements that took time for journalists to master.

Hindi was introduced in the law courts in Bihar in 1880 and started to have an impact in remote areas in Bihar.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by notable new publications, including a monthly magazine, Bharat Ratna, published in Patna in 1901. It was followed by Kshatriya Hitaishi, Aryavarta from Dinapure, Patna. Udyoga and Chaitanya Chandrika. Udyog was edited by Vijyaanand Tripathy, a famous poet of the time, while Chaitanya Chandrika was edited by Krishna Chaitanya Goswami. Literary activities reached many districts of Bihar.

Popular Hindi newspapers in Bihar include the Hindustan Times, Dainik Jagran, Navbharat Times, Aj The Hindu and Prabhat Khabar. E-papers, such as the Bihar Times and Patna Daily, have become very popular among educated Biharis, especially those living outside the region. National English dailies like The Times of India and The Economic Times and Bihar Now are read in urban regions.

In 1918, Dr. Sachidanand Sinha started the first English news publication from Patna, published biweekly, called the Searchlight. It became a tri-weekly in 1920 and then a daily in 1930. Due to various reasons, its publication was paused for five times. Many people supported the efforts to start Searchlight, anchored by a forward nationalist editorial outlook, including Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who was one of the founding members of the paper with Syed Hyder Hussain and Maheshwar Prasad being the Searchlight's first two editors. In its first few decades, Murli Manohar Prasad was its longest-serving editor, who also went to jail for his outspoken style of articles in the newspaper against the British. Later, K. Ramarao, M. Sharma, D.K. Sharda, T.J.S. George, S.C. Sarkar, S.K. Rao, and R.K. Makkar were other notable figures heading its editorial office in Patna.

Along with its flagship English paper, Searchlight also tried to diversify itself into the Hindi press. In 1947, it had a Hindi counterpart with the launch of Pradeep from Patna, which was the most sought-after source of news during the anti-corruption JP Movement of the early 1970s. The newspapers suffered a lot because of revealing the truth. Many times the state government not only stopped its government advertisements, but in 1974, chaotic elements even set fire to the searchlight building.

During the paper's early days, most of the judges of the Patna High Court were British. The Searchlight with Murli Manohar Prasad as the editor, printed several articles during 1928 and 1929 that interpreted various observations made by judges of the Patna High Court as derogatory and hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community. These articles were considered by the High Court with Sir Courtney Terrell as its Chief Justice as contempt of court. The editor at that time was Murli Manohar Prasad. Motilal Nehru, Sir Tej Narayan Sapru and Sarat Chandra Bose came as lawyers in Patna High Court in defence of Searchlight supporting the newspaper and its editor Murli Manohar Prasad.