Last week, British director Daniel Gordon’s new documentary Billion Dollar Heist was released. The film highlights the seriousness of cybersecurity issues the world faces today. Unfortunately, the subject of Gordon’s documentary is our central bank, the Bangladesh Bank, which was almost robbed of around a billion dollars by hackers in one of the worst instances of cybercrime in the world. Reviews published in some of the leading international newspapers, including The Guardian and The Financial Times, remind us that the 2016 heist remains quite a mystery.  Nearly three years after the heist, our government enacted the Digital Security Act, 2018, promising it to be “an Act to make provisions for ensuring digital security and identification, prevention, suppression and trial of offences committed through digital device and for matters ancillary thereto.” But instead, from its beginning, it has been another tool for suppressing free speech and political dissent in the country. Accordi...

As countries observe World Press Freedom Day today with the theme “freedom of expression is a driver for all other human rights,” Bangladesh is perhaps passing through the worst phase of it. Our standing in the global index has been witnessing a year-on-year slide for quite some time, despite the fact that the number of media outlets - be it a newspaper, a TV channel or a multimedia portal - has seen a spectacular growth. These numbers have given the government a viable tool to counter the national and international outcry of curbing media freedom.   Media plurality, though essential in all democracies, has become a tool for drowning out independent and critical voices. From India, the world has learnt a new term called ‘Godi media’ which is used to describe the unprecedented growth and expansion of news outlets that represent the coterie formed among politicians belonging to the ruling party, the government, and their corporate owners. Replication of this model in our country...

After four years of consultations with UN experts, Law Minister Anisul Haque has now outrightly rejected the most crucial part of their recommendations, saying the government won’t repeal sections 21 and 28 of the Digital Security Act (DSA) . He promised more consultations on amending other parts of the law and stopping its abuse. We learnt of this after the recommendations made by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) were published in the Bangla daily Prothom Alo .  Before delving into the OHCHR’s recommendations , it must be noted here that well before the DSA was enacted, there were widespread concerns about its likely impact on freedom of expression as the proposed provisions appeared harsher than the preceding law, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act 2006. Media representatives including the Editors’ Council were at the forefront of demanding amendments in the draft legislation. They identified sections 21, 25, 28, 31, 32 and 43 of t...

T he recent visit to Bangladesh by UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet attracted quite a significant amount of interest among rights activists globally, as it came after her controversial trip to China in May. She went to China despite opposition from rights activists and the United States which had expressed concerns that she would not have unfettered access to people subjected to alleged torture and intimidations. Later, on June 15, she told the Human Rights Council that she was unable to meet the detained Uyghurs. Some of these activists expressed concerns that her Dhaka visit could be used by the government, who faces criticism for widespread abuses and repressive laws, in claiming that it had nothing to hide.   Prior to her Dhaka trip, nine human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch (HRW), issued a joint statement on August 10, urging the UN rights chief to publicly call for an immediate end to serious human rights violations, including torture and disap...

Writer Mushtaq Ahmed paid the ultimate price for his freedom of expression, and it’s a matter of shame for us all that it happened in the year of the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh's independence. Ironically, the law that was applied against Mushtaq in accusing him of harming the image of the country for criticising the current state of affairs, the Digital Security Act (DSA), has itself earned global notoriety. Even in the most cautious diplomatic condemnation of the DSA, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet termed it an ``ill-defined” piece of legislation “used to punish criticism of the Government.” According to the European Union (EU), “some of its provisions risk going beyond the stated purpose of fighting digital crime.” The defenders of human rights, however, were not so polite in expressing their outrage.  Amnesty International said “The Digital Security Act criminalises many forms of freedom of expression, and imposes heavy fines and prison sentences for l...