The government must ensure participation of all stakeholders and add their inputs and consultations while formulating a policy, experts said.
Every law has to be explained rationally to citizens and has to be accepted by the people concerned, they said.
The experts were speaking at a virtual event, "Citizen’s Rights in current Draft Law and Regulations”, organized by Nagorik, a human rights organization, on Saturday.
Five draft legislations, including The Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Regulation for Digital, Social Media and OTT Platforms; Mass Media Employees (Conditions of Service) Act, 2022; and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2022, were the focal point of the discussion.
Prof CR Abrar of Dhaka University moderated the event, which was attended by human rights activists, NGO professionals, academics, and journalists.
Pointing out the tricky aspects of the draft laws, CR Abrar said: “Citizens need to be cautious about the catch points of the law which serve the interest of lawmakers.”
“All levels of stakeholders should be made accountable for their actions. But what we see is certain organizations such as the law enforcement agencies or public administration departments are kept out of the process. This is not consistent with the rule of law,” added CR Abrar.
Section 14 of the Mass Media Employees Act provides that in the interest of maintaining overall security and peace and order in the event of the termination of employment of ten or more media persons together, the government should inform the employer. In this regard, the journalist leaders say that the owners have already been provided with the help of the law enforcement agencies so that they cannot protest if ten workers are laid off together.
The proposed law stipulates that media workers have to work 48 hours a week. According to media persons, the law pertaining to 40 hours of work per week is mentioned in the law relating to government employees of Bangladesh. But in the case of journalists, the provisions of the Civil Servants Act were not kept.
Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua said: “Often we see that the stakeholders are asked to add their points after the bill is placed in the cabinet. The multiple tiers in complicated bureaucratic processes is keeping the remedy beyond touch or consideration in most of the cases.”
He said there was a tendency of enacting laws in a quick manner considering international and local pressure. “Are these laws providing any protection?”
Some provisions of the Data Protection Bill will be violative of the RTI Act, the experts said.
They urged the government to eliminate all unconstitutional provisions from these laws, bills and acts.
Sushmita S Preetha, activist and journalist said: “The government should discuss and review the drafts with all stakeholders.”
