Proposed Digital Security Act will muzzle freedom of speech, media: BNP

The proposed Digital Security Act will effectively stifle freedom of speech and the media, says the BNP.

The new law will muzzle press freedom “just like it was during the BAKSAL rule”, senior BNP leader Khandker Mosharraf Hossain said at a discussion on Tuesday.

Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League, or BAKSAL, was the only legal political party in the country for a brief period in 1975 before Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated.

The several restrictive regulations came during the BAKSAL regime included shutting down all but four state-owned newspapers.

Condemning the proposed law, BNP National Standing Committee member Hossain said: “We believe it has been done to crush the freedom of expression and media in line with the BAKSAL spirit.”

On Monday, the cabinet cleared the draft law, which incorporates issues addressed in the controversial Section 57 of the ICT Act in an elaborate way.

It keeps provisions of up to 14 years in jail and fines as high as Tk 10 million for offences like hacking and espionage in digital or electronic form as well as for ‘propaganda’ against the Liberation War and the Father of the Nation.

The Section 57 criminalises ‘publication of fake, obscene or defaming information in electronic forms’.

An offence under this provision is punishable by at least seven years to a maximum of 14-year imprisonment. Fine can be as high as Tk 10 million.

It has drawn criticism from rights activists and journalists, who say it muzzles the freedom of expression and that law-enforcers can misuse it.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has termed it as a ‘draconian law’.

“No such thing as freedom of speech and the media will exist if this law is passed. The government has put the law in place so that corruption cannot be reported and covered up. Journalists will be targeted just like it happened with Section 57,” Rizvi said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a media briefing at the BNP headquarters, Rizvi said that the new law ‘criminalises’ freedom of speech.

“This law will incriminate those who campaign for democracy. It will take us back to the mediaeval age. We call on parliament to refrain from passing this law.”