FROM PAGE 5

“This is an act that we believe is [used] to create an atmosphere of fear.”

Faisel said under the law, police can seize any device from any establishment. They don’t need an arrest warrant to nab individuals, which goes against a country that has a rule of law.

The now-revoked Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act-2006 received much criticism and now the DSA has emerged as a big threat to journalists, said Prof Kaberi Gayen of Dhaka University’s mass communication and journalism department.

In his speech, Information Minister Hasan Mahmud said the present government has ensured media freedom and extended all the support for its exponential growth in the country.

There are 38 private television channels in the country at present whereas there were only 10 until the beginning of 2009. There are more than 1,250 daily newspapers which were 450 at that time, he said.

“The government believes media freedom is essential for the protection of human rights and it has designed ‘media policy’ keeping that in mind.”

Editor of Daily Ittefaq Tasmima Hossain said the government needs to look at how newspaper houses are surviving and whether they are paying their employees or not.

Bangladesh as a UN member state is committed to upholding free expression and media rights as article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) says “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression,” said Gwyn Lewis, UN resident coordinator in Bangladesh.

Media freedom can only be properly upheld when journalists are granted access to information, said Nathalie Chuard, the Swiss ambassador to Bangladesh.

Terming media a “custodian” of human rights, Editors Guild Bangladesh President Mozammel Babu said media houses need to fight against “fake news”.

Bangladesh Press Council Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq Nasim stressed the flourishment of independent newspapers in the country for the quality development of journalists.