Some amendments are coming to Cyber Security Act
In the face of objections from journalists, some sections of the Cyber Security Bill have been amended and linguistic changes have been decided in some cases. It was decided to finalize the bill and present the report to the Parliament in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology at the Sangsad Bhaban on Thursday (September 7). The revised draft will be published on the ministry's website in a couple of days.
In the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee related to the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology held in the National Parliament on Thursday; a decision was taken regarding the amendment of several clauses. After the meeting, Law Minister Anisul Haque told reporters.
He said, 'We have made many changes in the bill. We have accepted the suggestion from the BFUJ regarding Section 21 of the Bill. Section 32 of the Official Secrecy Act has been repealed, this Act will not contain it. We have accepted the suggestion regarding the false case. The report of the bill will be submitted to the Parliament soon.'
However, the media representatives who attended the meeting were not completely satisfied with the amendments. In particular, they strongly opposed the warrantless arrest and search proposed in section 42 of the bill.
In the absence of the president of the parliamentary committee, the committee member Rezwan Ahmed Tawfiq presided over the meeting. The committee members, information and technology state minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Fahmi Golandaz Babel, Ahmed Firoz Kabir, Md. Nurul Amin, Monira Sultana and Zakia Parveen Khanum participated in the meeting. Law Minister Anisul Haque and Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar attended the meeting on special invitation of the President.
Besides, FUJ Secretary General Deep Azad, BFUJ President M Abdullah, Secretary General Nurul Amin Rokon, Press Club President Farida Akhter, General Secretary Shyamal Dutta, DUJ President Sohel Haider Chowdhury, General Secretary Aktar Hossain, BIJF President Naznin Nahar, General Secretary Sabbin Hasan and others attended by special invitation.
Press Club General Secretary Shyamal Dutta told reporters that, 'They have brought amendments in some cases including Sections 21, 32. In Section 42 some amendments has been brought in the definition. We have offered some specifics where journalism may suffer in all those matters. We have informed the committee about the issues that we have concerns about. They said they will correct those. The revised draft law will be available on the website in a day or two.'
Before this, the former president of BFUJ, Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, said, "The amendment was proposed by the journalist union." From the proposals, the Committee agreed to amend some sections including Sections 21, 32 of the Official Secrecy Act. Section 42 of the Bill has introduced some definitional changes. Sub-inspector level officer has been replaced by inspector level officer. But we are not satisfied with this. We talked about the Press Council.'
BFUJ (Part) President M Abdullah said, "Parliament has changed the language in two places. However, we are not satisfied with this. During the negotiations, we were adamant about the 14-point demand. In particular, I have objected to warrantless arrest and search under Article 42. We have said that we will accept it only if the clauses that hinder free journalism are canceled and amended.
DUJ general secretary Akhtar Hossain expressed disappointment over the decision of the parliamentary committee. He said, 'We have repeatedly drawn attention to the cancellation of Article 42, which hinders independent journalism. But it didn't work. Section 43 of the Digital Security Act has been placed exactly in Section 42 of this Bill. Even if some changes are mentioned, how much they will be will be known when the revised bill is published on the website. After seeing that, the DUJ will decide on the next course of action.'
BIJF president Nazneen Nahar said that although hacking has been added as a new section, it needs to be mentioned in detail. At the same time, he demanded that information theft should also be included in hacking.
After the meeting, a circular from the Parliament Secretariat said that after a detailed discussion on the 'Cyber Security Bill, 2023', a decision was taken to submit the report to the Parliament in an experimentally amended, supplemented and modified form.
