CPJ calls for scrapping new law

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called upon Bangladesh's legislature to scrap proposed cyber-security legislation that would impose severe penalties for disseminating online material deemed to be "anti-state or a threat to national security or public order."

"Proposed cyber-crime legislation, if passed, would have a stifling effect on media freedom in Bangladesh," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative.

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"The draft law's language dangerously conflates cyber-crime with fair critical comment. We strongly urge parliament to reject the bill and ensure that any future version includes clearly defined press freedom and freedom of expression guarantees," Crispin added.

The Digital Security Act-2016 was approved on August 22 by the Bangladesh cabinet and is pending in parliament, the CPJ said in its news alert from Bangkok on Wednesday, quoting media reports. 

If passed into law, the bill will enable the creation of a new agency charged with monitoring for violations, including the use of electronic media to "carry out propaganda," "hurt religious sentiments," or "create enmity and disturb law and order", it said.

Maximum penalties would include life in prison for spreading false information about the Liberation War or about Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, seven years for disturbing public order and two years for defamation or harming religious sensitivities, the reports said.

Cybercrime laws intended to extend penal codes to the online world can too easily be broadened to criminalise the standard practices of online journalists, the CPJ has found.

While publicly justified as a means of preventing terrorism or promoting stability, the laws are also used to restrict information critical of or embarrassing to authorities.

Bangladesh ranks 12th on CPJ's Impunity Index, a global measure of countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free.