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Journalists say it curbs media freedom
Bangladesh’s President on Monday signed a digital security act into law despite protests by journalists and rights groups that it will severely curb media freedom.
“The digital security Bill has been signed by the President today,” President Abdul Hamid’s spokesman Joynal Abedin said. Top editors and journalists had held a last-minute meeting with Ministers demanding some sections of the legislation be changed. The Law Minister had promised that he would discuss the issues, but the President went ahead and signed the act into law without waiting. The law, which carries heavy jail sentences for secretly recording government officials or spreading “negative propaganda” using a smartphone or computer, already had parliamentary approval. Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International’s (TI) Bangladesh chapter slammed the move in an immediate reaction.
‘Very disappointed’
“We are very disappointed,” TI Bangladesh spokesman Sheikh Manjur E Alam said.
“But we firmly want to believe that it won’t be used or abused before the government has a discussion as was promised about the amendment of the law,” he said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had in a press briefing last week backed the law.
She told journalists that “if there is no criminal mind, there is no reason to worry”.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/dhaka-enacts-digital-law-despite-protests/article25161980.ece
