Scribes held under 'draconian' Bangladesh law
Subhashis Mittra-WIDE ANGLE
The statement by 12 countries regarding the Digital Security Act in Bangladesh has generated a controversy in the neighbouring country.
Bangladesh Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud says the statement is tantamount to interference in the internal affairs of the country.
The United States Department of State has expressed concern over the Bangladesh government's use of the Act. Principal deputy spokesperson for the US Department of State Vedant Patel said, "We remain deeply concerned about the (Bangladeshi) government's use of the Digital Security Act. And freedom of expression, including for members of the press, is an essential element of democracy and is especially important in an election year. No member of the press should be threatened, harassed, physically attacked, or arrested for simply doing their job."
Earlier, Media Freedom Coalition in Bangladesh, a group of 12 countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a statement expressing concern over reports of violence and intimidation against journalists citing some recent instances including the arrest of a journalist of Bangladesh’s largest circulating daily 'Prothom Alo' under the Digital Security Act (DSA) for allegedly publishing a false report on March 26 defaming the independence.
But Mahmud, on the other hand, said that the concerned diplomats will be made aware of the obligations of the Vienna convention, if necessary. He said the government has ensured the freedom of the media and it is determined to maintain that freedom. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Bangladesh to immediately suspend the Act. Expressing concern over the arrest of journalists, Volker said DSA is being used to muzzle critical voices online.
The reporter, Shamsuzzaman Shams, had filed a report on the eve of the country’s Independence Day – March 26 – on price rise by interviewing several people, including a child. Since the child was identified wrongly in the report, published on March 26, the newspaper withdrew it within half an hour after its release, and duly issued a correction.
The law, which came into force on October 1, 2018, has become the government’s and ruling party activists’ preferred weapon to muzzle critics and stymie their freedom of expression, especially in cyberspace. Even before the law was passed by parliament, human rights activists and organisations criticised it as a threat to freedom of expression.
The Editors’ Council, the apex body comprising Bangladesh’s leading newspaper editors, protested and demanded that the government scrap nine sections of the law. While cabinet ministers met the editors and assured them that it would not be abused, such promises proved to be empty gestures. The law became so repressive that, in May 2020, the Editors’ Council remarked, “our fear is now a nightmare-reality for the mass media.”
The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the immediate release of Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman, who is facing a possible 14-year jail sentence on spurious charges in reprisal for his reporting, while his newspaper’s editor and publisher is himself being prosecuted on the same charges. RSF said that the case has no legal basis and is “clearly an act of intimidation by the government towards all journalists”.
Samsuzzaman had filed a petition for bail for the second time at the chief metropolitan magistrate court (CMM) in Dhaka. The court granted his bail.
Bangladesh’s high court also granted bail to editor Matiur Rahman after he was charged under the controversial digital law.
Rahman, 78, the editor of the Bengali-language daily Prothom Alo, had requested bail after a lawyer filed a case against him and the reporter under the Digital Security Act. He could face up to seven years in jail on these charges if convicted.