I t’s a rare thing that a country’s parliament is told by none other than the prime minister that its top newspaper is the enemy of the people. In utter disbelief, people heard last month that Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s prime minister and head of the ruling Awami League, told parliament that “the daily  Prothom Alo  is the enemy of the Awami League, democracy, and the people of the country. I am saying with regret that they never want to permit any stability in this country.” Her unhappiness with the country’s lone independent vernacular daily was already well known – she had barred its journalists from her office and public events in 2013, without giving any reason or making it official. Also, since Hasina returned to power in 2009, she and some of her cabinet had made a number of allegations against  Prothom Alo  – ranging from the newspaper siding with undemocratic forces to it creating instability and thwarting the government’s development agenda. But the prime ...

  The timeline of arrestingProthom Alo journalist Shamsuzzaman Shams is very telling. According to the police documents, a case under the Digital Security Act against Shams was registered with Tejgaon police station at 02:15 a.m. on Wednesday by Syed Golam Kibria, general secretary of Jubo League’s Dhaka North Ward 11 unit. In less than two hours, members of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) reached Shams’ home in Savar, accompanied by a sub-inspector from the local police station. The speed of police response to this case indicates that the ruling party man did not bring it on a whim. Now, a case has been filed against the newspaper’s editor-publisher, Matiur Rahman. Remember the announcement made by law minister Anisul Haque that the home ministry had instructed the police that journalists would no longer be arrested under the DSA until an investigation was complete? Why was that instruction not complied with by Tejgaon police? This incident is a clear proof that the pl...

Following protests by opposition parties, rights groups and businesses, the Indian government has withdrawn its proposed Data Protection Bill. The draft bill received 81 amendment suggestions at the joint parliamentary committee. Reports suggest that the government is now considering bringing in a fresh bill, taking into consideration all the suggestions that came through the parliamentary committee.  While the government in India has listened to the opposition, in Bangladesh, the government has brushed aside the civil societies’ concerns about a similar bill and published the third draft with further expansion of authoritative controls over personal data and privacy.  In India, the bill had been sent to the parliamentary panel in 2019 after opposition parties said the data privacy law violated fundamental rights of the citizens. They said the law gave sweeping powers to the government to access personal data of individuals under opaque conditions citing national security and ...

The extraordinary assurance that no journalist will be arrested immediately under the Digital Security Act (DSA) without a summon seems to be an attractive solution to the concerns and fears created by its random abuse to suppress critical voices in the media. Law Minister Anisul Huq gave this assurance to the members of the Overseas Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (OCAB), when he said that journalists would be getting an opportunity to seek bail in court. In a significant shift in the government’s position on this controversial law, he had also acknowledged that there were incidents of misuse and abuse of the Digital Security Act. Though his sublime remarks made an eye catching headline, the legal and moral questions of such exceptionalism should not be ignored.    It should be noted that this controversial law was passed in a hurry, just before the 2018 elections, brushing aside the concerns of journalists and human rights activists. Those apprehensions of wide...

Does anyone know what had happened to Utpal Das? If you cannot remember who Utpal is, no one would blame you. Because, he is not a celebrity like all those familiar faces on our TV screens. Utpal, however, was in the news for quite some time in 2017, following his abduction and eventual return after two and a half months from confinement by his abductors. Before his abduction, Utpal was working as a journalist at a little-known online news portal called Purbapashchimbd.news. Till today, neither Utpal nor the law enforcing agencies have told us where he was for such a long period and who were behind his mysterious disappearance. There's a popular perception in society that those involved with the media are well looked after by the media. So, it was expected that the media fraternity would investigate this case and reveal the truth. Unfortunately, it didn't happen. Utpal's silence is akin to that of all other survivors of alleged enforce disappearances in the last decade ...

ডিজিটাল নিরাপত্তা আইনের যেসব বিধান নিয়ে আশঙ্কা ও   উদ্বেগ প্রকাশ করা হচ্ছিল, সংসদীয় কমিটিতে অনেকটা তাড়াহুড়ো করে চূড়ান্ত করা খসড়ায় সেগুলোর প্রায় সবই রেখে দেওয়া হয়েছে। সম্পাদক পরিষদ তাই যথার্থভাবেই তার   প্রতিক্রিয়ায় এটা স্পষ্ট করে তাঁদের বিস্ময় ও হতাশার কথা জানিয়েছেন। সম্পাদক পরিষদকে ধন্যবাদ যে তাঁরা তাঁদের বিবৃতিতে স্মরণ করিয়ে দিয়েছেন যে সংসদীয় কমিটি আরও এক দফা তাঁদের কথা শোনার আশ্বাস দিয়েও শেষপর্যন্ত কথা রাখেননি। এর আগে তথ্যমন্ত্রী এবং আইনমন্ত্রী আশ্বস্ত করেছিলেন যে সম্পাদক এবং সাংবাদিক-প্রতিনিধিদের মতামতকে তাঁরা বিবেচনায় নেবেন। বোঝাই যাচ্ছে ওগুলো ছিল কথার কথা। নাগরিক সমাজ বা বিভিন্ন পেশাজীবিদের মতামতকে গ্রহণ করার বদলে ‘ আলোচনা ‘ নামের আনুষ্ঠানিকতা পালন যে সরকারের অভ্যাসে পরিণত হচ্ছে এই ডিজিটাল আইনের ক্ষেত্রে সেরকম প্রমাণই পাওয়া যাচ্ছে।   এখানে স্মরণ করা যেতে পারে যে চলতিবছরের মাঝামাঝি সময়ে সম্পাদকদের সঙ্গে বৈঠকে   আশ্বাস দেওয়া হয়েছিল যে বহুলনিন্দিত তথ্য প্রযুক্তি আইনের ৫৭ ধারা থাকবে না এবং ওই ধারায় মামলা করতে হলে পুলিশ সদরদপ্তর বা স্বরাষ্ট্র মন্ত্রণালয়ের ...