Digital security law will hamper press freedom

BNP on Tuesday alleged that the Digital Security Bill approved by the Cabinet will hamper press freedom and freedom of expression as it has been framed with the “spirit of Baksal”.

"The press freedom and the freedom of expression will be snatched through the act as they [Awami League] did it in the past introducing Baksal. The government is indirectly following the path of Baksal," said BNP senior leader Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain.

He made the allegation while speaking at a discussion organised by Bangladesh Ganotantrik Sangskritik Jote at the Jatiya Press Club.

The Cabinet on Monday approved the draft of the Digital Security Bill 2018 aiming to deal with various crimes including cybercrime, acts of hurting religious sentiment, negative propaganda against the Liberation War and the Father of the Nation and spreading of defamatory material.

Many of the crimes mentioned in the draft law have been made cognizable and non-bailable offences.

Mosharraf, a BNP standing committee member, said the new law will be more dangerous than the section 57 of the ICT Act. "We strongly condemn and protest the approval of the Bill in the Cabinet."

Meanwhile, BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan office urged the government not to pass the bill in parliament as it is anti-democratic.