Staff Reporter :
Rights activists have urged the people to raise their voice in favour of freedom of the speech saying human life turns into animal’s life in absence of the fundamental rights.
Lawyers, educationists and teachers observed this at a discussion on ‘freedom speech at threat’ organized by Moulik Adhikar Suraksha Committee, a platform for rights activists, in the city on Saturday.
The right to speak freely plays a vital role in the healthy development process of any society, they added.”Raise your voice for ensuring freedom of the speech. If you do not have right to speak, you will not get any other rights,” said eminent jurist Dr. Shahdeen Malik.
He said, “In the absence of freedom of expression, our life turns into an animal’s life. We are not born in an independent candidate to live an animal’s life.”
Shahdeen Malik, an advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court, pointed out that one of the vital reasons of the fall of Soviet Union was absence of freedom of the speech.
CR Abrar, a former professor of Dhaka University International Relations, said freedom of expression is the mother of all rights. “Without ensuring it, we cannot express ourselves as human fully.”
Abrar, also president of rights organisation Odhikar, quoted a report of Reporters without Border that shows Bangladesh stands 150th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Last year Bangladesh’s position was 146th.
According to Odhikar information collected from newspaper reports, 15 journalists were killed between 2009 to September this year, he said, adding: 1020 journalists were injured, 304 face attacks and 363 were threatened in the same period.
