Talked strongly, acted weakly

Despite an announcement four days ago, the government could not arrest anyone of those involved in media propaganda that has apparently provoked violence across the country.
On Wednesday, Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu spoke of legal action against yellow journalism. He said any media will face legal action if they publish materials, which slander Prophet or criticise any religion in obscene language, quoting blogs or social networking sites like Facebook.
This is also a violation of journalistic ethics, Inu said.
The recent violence, including Friday's terror attacks on police and media people, are thought to have resulted from media propaganda by the Jamaat-e-Islami and student body Islami Chhatra Shibir.
Several national dailies have published reports on alleged blog write-ups by individuals, criticising Prophet Hazrat Mohammad (SM) and Islam. The reports angered many people and brought some people against the bloggers and activists who initiated the Shahbagh movement on February 5 calling death penalty for all war criminals
The protesters have also been receiving death threats from a number of facebook accounts and blogs.
Contacted yesterday, Inu said the government was working out what administrative and legal actions could be taken for such violation of the law.
"We have been going through the related laws and procedures over the last three days. We will make an announcement tomorrow (today)," he told The Daily Star by phone.
Asked what action would be taken against those who have already violated the law, he said, "We have contemplated three options -- cancellation of declaration of the media, confiscation of the already published copies and arrest of the people directly involved in law violation."
Jamaat-Shibir men reportedly engaged in cyber propaganda ahead of Friday's mass agitation and violent attacks. They also hacked some public and private websites, including that of Prime Minister Office's project -- access to information (a2i) and electronic (e) information centre -- and some daily newspapers.
According to the international crimes tribunal law, these are cyber offence and punishable up to 10 years of imprisonment.
But the government did not take any action against the people responsible for causing unrest across the country through such propaganda.
An organisation against cyber criminal activities, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) already blocked some individuals' facebook accounts and blogs spreading misinformation regarding the Shahbagh movement.
ICT Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said there was a provision for punishment for cyber crimes but the victims would have to file cases against the alleged people.
"We are simplifying the law so that people can use it."
Last year BTRC formed Bangladesh Computer Security Incident Response Team (BDCSIRT) to take necessary steps to identify websites that spread anti-state or anti-religious statements.
But since Friday, the site of BDCSIRT has not been found.
An official of BTRC said anti-religious or anti-state propaganda through social sites or e-mails are punishable offence but there is no awareness programme. People do not have little awareness about cyber crime or hacking.
Jabed Morshed, an IT expert and teacher of Daffodil International University, said the government should launch awareness programme against cyber crimes immediately and should strengthen the government websites.
Otherwise, he said the sites might come under attack more often. It seemed the anti-liberation forces had engaged foreign hackers to hack government sites, Jabed said, adding on the other hand Jamaat-Shibir's sites were being hacked by local hackers.
The government should keep a backup of their data and monitor its websites frequently. A Pakistani and a Turkish group hacked government sites on the last two days, Jabed added.