Digital Security Act: Law Minister Anisul Huq informed parliament that, until January 2023, a total of 7,001 cases had been filed under the Digital Security Act (DSA) in Bangladesh.
World Press Freedom Day: The Bangladesh Press Council has undertaken a scheme to register professional journalists, which is an outdated practice mostly confined to some autocratic countries. No other country in South Asia has such a scheme. This form of registration is considered as licensing and is used by governments to control the press.
The general secretary of the ruling party and a ranking cabinet minister asserted that “it was not a simple mistake but a criminal offence”. He argued that “in any advanced democratic country if such kind of child exploitation had happened, licence of the media would have been cancelled”.
The timeline of arresting Prothom Alo journalist Samsuzzaman Shams is very telling. According to police documents, a case under the Digital Security Act against Shams was registered with Tejgaon police station at 2:15 am.