Leading litterateur Prof Anisuzzaman yesterday said freedom of expression Is the pre-condition of democratic practice and if any sort of censorship is imposed on it. society will lose its dignity, reports BSS.

"From the very beginning of human civilisation different pressure groups like churches and emperors imposed ban on free expression. In the modern age state mechanism tries to arrest the free voice through censorship." he said.

He said this while presenting the keynote paper at the Nazmul Karim Memorial Lecture "99 on "Intellectual Freedom in this Decade" on the Dhaka University campus.

Department of Sociology organised the programme in memory of the late Prof Abul Khair Nazmul Karim, who spent most of his time to establish sociology as a separate discipline in Bangladesh. The Department of Sociology of Dhaka University was established in July 1957 as a result of his relentless efforts.

Pro Vice-Chancellor Prof Shahdat Ali addressed the lecture as the chief guest while Prof Prabodh Kumar Bhoumik ol Anthropology Department of Calcutta University spoke as a special guest.