Bangladesh to redraft controversial digital security law

Dhaka, Aug 7 (PTI) The Bangladesh government has decided to redraft the controversial Digital Security Act (DSA), annulling some stringent provisions like jail terms on defamation charges, law minister Anisul Huq said on Monday. Huq said the proposed Cyber Security Act (CSA) would replace the DSA to avoid the misuse of the existing legislation while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet in principle approved the new law. “There will be no jail term for defamation in the Cyber Security Act (CSA),” the minister told reporters at his office, adding that convicts under the proposed law would be required to pay fines only instead of serving jail terms.

Rights activists and journalists have long termed the DSA as a draconian law enacted in 2018 while the opposition said it was meant to suppress dissent and freedom of speech.
“Section 29 (of DSA, prescribing prison terms) has been abolished. The only punishment would be fine or to suffer a jail term of three to six months in default,” Huq said.
The minister said the proposed CSA suggested a two-year prison term instead of the five years prescribed in DSA’s Section 28 which was related to the publication, or broadcast of information on a website or in any other electronic format hurting one’s religious values and sentiments.

He said that people accused under this particular section could avail bail from the court as well while the DSA made the charges non-bailable.
Officials said the new law was expected to be passed in Parliament after further scrutiny by the law ministry and final cabinet approval.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk added weight to DSA protestors in Bangladesh by asking the government to impose an “immediate moratorium” on the enforcement of DSA.

He also called for “reform comprehensively its (DSA) provisions to bring them in line with the requirements of international human rights law”. Huq, however, said the proposed law would retain some provisions of the DSA as “we, of course, need some rules and regulation for our growing digital presence and cyberspace”.

Corruption and rights watchdog Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) cautiously welcomed the government move but warned that the proposed law must not become a tool to obstruct free expression and suppress the voice of the media.

The Editors’ Council of Bangladesh appreciated the attempt to repeal the “harsh law”.
Editors’ Council President Mahfuz Anam said: “We thank the government for the move but we are yet to know what provisions are there in the Cyber Security Act and if or not it impinges on press freedom in any form.”

Some legal experts and lawyers said the redrafting was “not enough” while the mass circulation of Protom Alo newspaper in an opinion called the proposed law “old wine in a new bottle”.

The move came as Bangladesh’s political landscape is gradually being heated up ahead of the upcoming general elections in late December 2023 or early 2024 with main opposition alleging that the government was becoming more suppressive.

Bangladesh’s parliament passed the DSA in late 2018 after several major instances of deadly sectarian violence sparked by posts on social media.The DSA criminalised engaging in acts of hurting people’s religious sentiment, propaganda against Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War, the national anthem, the flag and the nation’s founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the incumbent prime minister

.Rights groups say several thousand people, including journalists and opposition political activists, were charged or arrested under the DSA and the number of arrests increased since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic