Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said there is no question of the government repealing the Digital Security Act but cautioned that attention must be paid to ensure that no one, including journalists, is harassed through this law.
The minister was talking to the media after a meeting with leaders of the Crime Reporters Association of Bangladesh (CRAB) at the conference room of his ministry at the Secretariat on Thursday.
The act had been enacted to ensure digital security for all, he said.
"Our act is much more flexible than the equivalent US law. The American law of 2015 for digital offences was amended in 2022 with a provision of 20 years of imprisonment as the highest punishment. Our law does not have the provision for such a long jail term. If someone dies as a result of a digital crime, the punishment for that crime in the US is life imprisonment.”
Noting that the European Union also enacted a new digital security law in 2022 and almost all countries had such laws, the information minister said the digital security laws of Australia, Singapore and Continental Europe “are also tougher than ours.”
So there was no possibility of repealing the Digital Security Act, he added.
The government had taken measures to ensure no one abused the law and the law ministry was looking into what more steps could be taken, the minister said.
“All laws are abused, not just the Digital Security Act. Lawyers say 80% of cases filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act are frivolous. Many laws are misused like this,” he added.
