Section 57 deals with defamation, hurting religious sentiments, causing deterioration of law and order and instigating against any person or organisation through publishing or transmitting any material in websites or in electronic form. Moreover, it stipulates maximum 14 years in prison for the offences. Now, the draft of Digital Security Act-2018 splits these offences into four separate sections with punishment ranging from 3 to 10 years’ term. The proposed law also describes some crimes as ‘non-bailable’ and most worryingly allows the police to search or arrest anyone without a warrant in what appears to the police as ‘special circumstances’.
This is a clear signal of a police power-based governance denying the people’s right to know. The government has reportedly formulated the Act to combat growing cyber crimes that have been affecting many public and private organisations including the Bangladesh Bank.
However, what is truly strange is that when asked whether the proposed law will affect mainstream journalism – as elements of Section 57 were incorporated in the draft – the Cabinet Secretary did not give any direct answer. He said, ‘there was nothing about journalists here in the draft’.
The provision on “spying” will seriously obstruct the people’s right to know and the journalists’ right to publish information about secrecy in the government.
The power given to the police to arrest anybody without a court’s order is enough to make press freedom and the people’s right to know meaningless. This step will make Bangladesh a police state and the courts for trial redundant. The police will not be willing to take help of the court. Already independence of the judiciary is denied.
The government under weak political leadership being led along the path of communism. Such a move is bound to complicate the situation in the country.
