Manjarul Ahsan Bulbul, Chief Executive of Ekushey TV & former president of BFUJ : Despite journalists having objections over the Digital Security Act-2018, the government did not pay heed to their call. Rather the controversial Section-57 of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act and the colonial law called “Official Secrets Act-1923 have been added to the Section-32 of the latest law passed on September 19, leaving the media workers concerned.
An analysis to the Digital Security Act-2018 says that tough the Section-57 of the ICT Act was repealed, the subject related to the section is incorporated in the Sections-25, 28, 29 and 31 of the law. On the other hand, by inserting the Section-32 of the Official Secrets Act-1923, a scope to spying in the process of gathering information from government offices has been created. Moreover, the new law narrates 14 Sections for non-bailable criminal acts.
Section-32 is the most concerning part of the law since it will hinder investigative journalism. Since the Section has been linked to the Official Secrets Act, it has paved the way to bring allegations of espionage—a move that was unexpected. In addition, the objectionable issues of the Section-57 under the ICT Act have been brought in here.
The passage of the law despite accusations from the journalists will cause Bangladesh’s position to drop down in the global index of journalism. They way the law is made complicated, if any journalist makes a mistake, he or she will not be able to get rid of a charge by paying a great deal of money as fine.
Based on an interview by Md. Enamul Haque Ena, translated by Sayeed Muhammad