DU Correspondent :
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on Wednesday urged the government to review the Digital Security Act 2018 calling some sections of it ‘Black Law’.
The TIB said that the law was against the spirit of Liberation War. This is an indecent attempt to choke the voice of the dissidents.
TIB requested the President not to assent to the bill for sending back to the Parliament to review ‘controversial and alarming’ sections of the act.
They placed these demands from a human chain held in the Teacher Student Center (TSC) of Dhaka University on the occasion of the International Right to Information Day to be observed on September 28.
Mentioning the Digital Security Act as contradictory to the Constitution freedom of speech and the ideology of the liberation war, Executive Director of TIB Dr Iftekharuzzaman said, “the Act takes away right to freedom of speech and expression, creates insecurity among the journalists of the both print and electronic media, and the people as well. So its review is better.”
He said also, the Act is like the colonial official Act. It was backward thinking and a threat to investigative journalism and would also insecure them.
Earlier on September 19, National Parliament passed the Digital Security Bill ignoring the concern expressed by different national and international quarters, including journalists about eight sections.
Meanwhile, journalists’ leaders have already voiced concern about sections 8, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32 and 43 of the bill.
