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Published : 19 Apr 2020, 11:58 PM
“The Digital Security Act has been misused to start a case over accurate news,” the journalists working on the education sector said in a media release on Sunday.
“It is tantamount to obstructing independent journalism and also encourages other perpetrators to continue such act,” the group said, noting that the media workers risk their lives to gather news in order to keep the public informed.
ERAB demanded swift withdrawal of the case and punishment of the “rice thieves under the Special Powers Act, 1974”.
“Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself enacted the Special Powers Act in 1974. According to the law’s Section 25, the highest punishment for stealing rice allotted for relief is death and the minimum is three months in prison,” read the release.
Besides Khalidi, Jago News acting Editor Mohiuddin Sarker and two others – Shaon Amin and Rahim Shubho – have also been named in the case started by Mominul Islam Bhasani, president of Swechchhasebak League’s Baliadangi unit, on Friday.
The charges against the four were brought under Sections 25, 29 and 31 of the law that involve offences, such as publishing of offensive, false, defamatory or fear-inducing data or information.
bdnews24.com on Apr 9 reported that Moniruzzaman Mukul, the publicity and publication secretary of Baliadangi Upazila Jubo League, called national emergency helpline 999 after he discovered that rice for the government’s Tk 10 OMS programme was being transported early in the morning to Kusholdangi market of Parua village under Barapolashbari union.
Upazila chief executive or UNO Khairul Alam Sumon later went to the site, seized 68 sacks of rice and detained the transporters. Information from the transporters led to the recovery of another 562 sacks of rice from a warehouse, owned by Amirul Islam Emrul, a local dealer.
