Amended anti-terror act to gag freedom of expression

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and its member organisation in Bangladesh, Odhikar, have expressed deep concern about the recently passed Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2013, saying it would limit the freedom of expression.
In a joint statement published on the FIDH website on June 14, the organisations said the amendments which would allow the courts to accept videos, still photographs and audio clips used in Facebook, twitter, Skype, and other social media for trial cases widened the scope of sanctions provided in the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009.
“Experiences in several countries show that the criminalisation of opinions, expressed online through social media or blogs, is not only a violation of freedom of expression and the right to privacy; it also represents a new pattern of persecution of any voice of dissent as well as human rights defenders,” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji.
FIDH and Odhikar also criticised the definition of "terrorism" and retention of “death penalty” as the maximum punishment for financing "terrorist" activities. By retaining a vague definition and reducing terrorism to merely a crime punishable by death, the amendment bill makes the act even more vulnerable to the worst kind of abuses, they said.
Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary of Odhikar, said the amended bill, passed on June 11, would be more repressive.