The High Court has issued a rule asking why an order should not be given to ban the broadcast of the Indian television channel Republic Bangla within the territory of Bangladesh.
The rule was issued on Sunday by a High Court bench comprising Justice Fahmida Quader and Justice Sayed Jahed Mansur.
Advocate Mahmudul Hasan appeared for the petitioner during the hearing, while Assistant Attorney General Ikramul Kabir represented the state.
Earlier, Mahmudul filed a writ petition with the High Court seeking legal action against Republic Bangla and calling for a ban and block of its news and content in Bangladesh.
The petition stated that Republic Bangla regularly publishes news and content through satellite broadcasting as well as on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
The writ petition alleged that the channel has been spreading false anti-Bangladesh propaganda and engaging in conspiracies aimed at destabilizing the country’s law and order.
It even accused the channel of making dangerous claims, such as suggesting that the Chittagong division be separated from mainland Bangladesh and annexed to India.
Additionally, the channel was accused of consistently attempting to incite communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims in Bangladesh and of posing threats to national and public security through media aggression.
The petitioner mentioned that a legal notice regarding the issue had previously been sent to the authorities concerned.
However, since the government failed to take any action against the channel, the writ was filed seeking the court’s intervention to block the channel’s content from social media and to take necessary measures.
The respondents in the writ include the secretaries of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Home Affairs; the ICT Division; and the chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC).