The Editors’ Council on Tuesday demanded the abolition of the Digital Security Act, 2018, saying that the law is being used against journalists as well as freedom of the press.
Council president Mahfuz Anam, also the editor of The Daily Star, raised the demand at a discussion at the National Press Club in the capital, organised to mark the World Press Freedom Day which will be observed today.
Mahfuz Anam also demanded that the processes of the laws which would go against independent and free journalism should be suspended immediately.
Addressing the event as the guest of honour, former information minister and current chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the information and broadcasting ministry Hasanul Haq Inu urged the government to amend the DSA and make it media-friendly.
At the same time, he also called for necessary steps for the security of the cyber world.
‘The misuse of the Digital Security Act must be stopped. Until it is fixed or amended, the filing of cases should be subject to the Home Minister’s permission. You just can’t arrest any person and send them to jail after receiving a complaint. There should be a right to bail,’ he added.
‘All say that the Digital Security Act needs a review. Definitely it needs a review and correction. It’s not right to put it on hold,’ he said.
He urged the government to immediately implement the law minister’s commitments and amend the clauses which needed to be amended.
In the discussion, Mahfuz Anam urged the government that if there was any limitation on its part to cancel the DSA it must include a provision in the act, stipulating that the law is not applicable for the mass media and those people who work for the freedom of expression.
He also demanded that the cases which had been filed till date on account of journalism should be withdrawn and the arrested journalists be released.
The atmosphere of fear that has been created, he went on to say, should also be removed by the government.
According to the Editors’ Council, there can be laws to protect journalism, which is there within the spirit of the constitution.
Addressing the programme, council’s senior vice-president Nurul Kabir, also the editor of New Age, said that the authoritarian Awami League government, which had practically established a one-party rule, had enacted the DSA to silence the voice of the political opponents and the critical press, for a one-party rule cannot sustain without suppressing plural views on the issues of public importance.
‘It is, therefore, useless to repeat appeals to the government to amend or abolish the draconian law [DSA], which the government itself has enacted in its own partisan interest,’ he said.
Kabir argued that the issue of getting rid of the undemocratic DSA provisions was now directly related to the larger political struggle for democracy, as the democratic freedom of the press could only exist in a democratic political dispensation.
‘We need to make the people realise that freedom of the press is not only important for the journalists, but also for the people at large, because without a free press, people cannot have adequate information required to form informed opinions for correctly evaluating the performance of a government,’ he added.
Moderated by Daily Bonik Barta editor and Editors’ Council general secretary Dewan Hanif Mahmud, the event was addressed, among others, by Daily Ittefaq editor Tasmima Hossain, Daily Samakal editor Muzzammil Husain, former Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists president Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Financial Express editor Shamsul Huq Zahid, Daily Prothom Alo managing editor Anisul Haque and Daily Desh Rupantor acting editor Mustafa Mamun.
