Digital Security: Draft law will be reviewed before passage

The draft of the Digital Security Act-2018 will be reviewed before its passage and it may see some changes, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said yesterday.

The draft will be sent to the law ministry and then to the parliamentary standing committee for review.

Finally, it will go to parliament and may be passed, Tofail told a press conference at his ministry.

The minister also binned reports by some media outlets on January 30 that the Digital Security Act was formulated to protect lawmakers from being humiliated.

"The media reports, quoting me, are wrong," Tofail said and advised journalists to do factual and investigating reporting, not misquote people.

He said, "We remain alert as you write both good and bad reports about us. Earlier, you wrote against someone in my ministry ... of his taking bribe. You did it accurately. Based on that, we investigated and then sacked him after the allegation was found true."

The minister said it was not possible to bring the rice price below Tk 40 a kg. It would also not be practical because farmers too must get a fair price.

He said rice price was now normal.

"We also have to pay attention to the farmers. When rice price was low, you wrote that the farmers were being affected. If the farmers don't get the fair price, they lose interest in rice production. This consequently affects us all."