Dhaka, Nov 20 – In a meeting held on 19th November at The Daily Star Centre and presided over by Reazuddin Ahmed, the Sampadak Parishad expressed its deep disappointment that in spite of commitment by three ministers “that scope for further dialogue was not over”, no effort was made to address the grievances of the journalists and media community and no step was taken to amend the Digital Security Act in the last session of the 10the Parliament which was held from October 21-29, 2018. The Parishad also notes with concern that the Digital Security Act is starting to be used against media persons before the framing of rules that are supposed to govern its use. There have also been cases of threats being made against media houses that cases will be filed under the above Act to prevent them from carrying out their professional tasks.
The Parishad urges all political parties participating in the upcoming election to incorporate in their respective party’s electoral manifestos a pledge to amend the Digital Security Act in the 11th parliament to be formed through the 30th December 2018 election.
The Sampadak Parishad also expresses its serious concern at the widespread use of defamation cases against journalists and editors with a view to harassing them and preventing them from performing their journalistic functions. In this regard, the Parishad draws the attention of the honourable magistrates and judges that while the law clearly provides that only “aggrieved” persons are entitled to file defamation cases but persons not falling under the legal definition of
“aggrieved” persons are filing defamation cases and those are being accepted by the courts. We earnestly urge that such abuse of the law be immediately stopped and the legal provision be strictly followed in defamation cases.
The statement has been sent by Reazuddin Ahmed, Founding Editor, News Today; Matiur Rahman Chowdhury, Editor, Manabzamin; Nurul Kabir, Editor, New Age; Matiur Rahman, Editor, Prothom Alo
