Govt resorts to using DSA to stifle media: BNP

Staff Reporter :
The government had been carrying out extreme repression by using the ‘black’ law Digital Security Act (DSA) to gag the media and demanded repeal the law immediately, the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alleged.
BNP’s Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in a statement on Thursday expressed its deep concern over suing one after another against journalists including Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman under the Digital Security Act.
He also demanded immediate repeal of the Digital Security Act and the withdrawal of all cases filed against journalists under the Act.
After picking up Prothom Alo reporter Samsuzzaman Shams by law enforcers on early Wednesday, the senior leader of BNP said that a case was filed against the editor of the newspaper, Matiur Rahman, on Wednesday late night under the DSA.
Besides, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said, a Juba League leader filed another case under the DSA against Daily Jugantor’s Special Correspondent and ex-General Secretary of Crime Reporters’ Association Mahbub Alam Lavlu in Chattogram.
The BNP leader protested and denounced the filing of the cases against the journalists under the DSA on ‘false’ charges. The BNP’s Secretary General said, “Filing of cases one after the other against journalists under the DSA a severe blow to the freedom of expression.”
He also alleged that the government had demonstrated that it wanted to bury democracy forever by filing a case under the DSA against Matiur Rahman, one of the country’s leading newspaper editors.
By suing journalists under the DSA, he said that the government wanted to send out a message to the country’s people that the government’s activities could not be criticised and opinions could not be expressed freely.
According to Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, “The Awami League government is continuing its terrible misrule in the country by indiscriminately repressing and suppressing the media, the fourth pillar of the state.”