How Is It Being Enforced

April 2021 https://freedominfo.net/reports

Principal Investigator

Ali Riaz is a distinguished professor of political science at Illinois State University (ISU), and a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Governance Studies.

Research Assistants

Arif Ahmed obtained his Bachelor and Master’s Degree from the Department of Political Science, University of Dhaka. He works as a Research Associate at the Centre for Governance Studies. Md. Abdullah Al Zafori obtained his Bachelor Degree from the Department of Political Science, University of Chittagong. He works as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Governance Studies. Arman Miah obtained his Bachelor Degree from the Department of Social Work, National University of Bangladesh. He works as a Research Assistant at the Centre for Governance Studies.

This project is funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), USA.

Photography

Sumia Zahid

The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) conducts research on and facilitates collaborative efforts among the academic community, government, private sector, civil society and development partners on governance, security, economic and human resource development, political and social order, and democratization. For details, visit: http://cgs-bd.com/

45/1 New Eskaton, 2nd Floor, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh The Digital Security Act has been a topic of intense discussion in Bangladesh for the past three years. The discussions began shortly after the draft law was finalized at the end of November 2017. Objections were raised against the proposed law insisting that it would impede freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Despite the criticisms and objections, the government passed this law and implemented it in October 2018. National and international human rights organizations and organizations which monitor media freedom around the globe warned of possible abuse of various sections of the law. The Editors’ Council, an organization of editors of various media in Bangladesh, drew attention to the flaws of various articles of the proposed laws and discussed the potential negative impacts of these articles on the media (‘Editors’ Council: Why we oppose Digital Security Act’, Prothom Alo English, September 29, 2018). Meetings between the government and the Editors’ Council were held, the Editors were promised that the government would consider the opinions of the Council. However, the government implemented the law without addressing the concerns of anyone except the objections of the Police. The Parliamentary Committee recommended that in Section 43 regarding search, seizure, and arrests the Police should be required to seek permission from the Director General of the Digital Security Agency; but it was later removed at the objection of the Police. Thus, the police have been given the power to search, seize and arrest without any warrant or permission (“Nobody`s objections taken into account,” Prothom Alo, February, 27, 2021). The government has repeatedly claimed that the law is not being abused and there is no reason for anyone to be afraid of it. The Editors’ Council said in May 2020 that their fears about the Digital Security Act have come to pass; “our fear is now a nightmare-reality for the mass media,’ it said in a statement (‘Digital Security Act: Editors’ Council worried over cases against journos, writer’, The Daily Star, May 8, 2020). After more than two years since the law went into effect there is enough information to understand what the reality has become, how widely the law is being used, who is being accused under the law, and what kind of allegations are being made. The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) initiated a research project in February 2020 to gather information about various aspects of the law, especially the impacts of the Digital Security Act 2018. Under this project, information about cases, detentions, and legal proceedings under the Digital Security Act are gathered. This report is based on data collected from 1 January 2020 to 25 March 2021. During this period detailed information about 426 cases have been gathered. The number of total accused persons in these cases are 913. Based on these cases, the information obtained on various aspects of the application of this law has been analyzed.