BNP to revoke DSA if returns to power: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Sunday categorically said their party, if returns to power, will revoke all ‘repressive’ acts and ordinances, including the Digital Security Act (DSA).

Speaking at a views-exchange meeting with journalists, he also said their party will ensure the implementation of the Wage Board for journalists and media employees and empower the Press Council if their party forms government in the days to come.

“We would like to clearly say that if we form the government, all the repressive acts and ordinances that are obstacles to the independence of the media will be annulled,” the BNP leader said.

The BNP arranged the programme titled, ‘Media Control Laws in Annihilating the Media: Bangladesh Perspective’ at the Jatiya Press Club. Former BNP MP and its executive committee member Jahiruddin Swapan presented the keynote paper.

Fakhrul said their party believes that it is not possible to give democracy an international shape without the independence of the media. “The BNP has been working towards that goal since the rule of late President Ziaur Rahman.”

He said the current government has enacted various laws, including the DSA. “These laws are like putting a nail in the coffin of media freedom.”

Speaking at the programme, Prothom Alo Joint Editor Sohrab Hassan expressed solidarity with the commitments of BNP to ensure media freedom.

“We can try to be reassured. But our past experiences don’t suggest us to be reassured…No government was newspaper or media-friendly since the country’s independence,” he said.

He said politicians have the responsibility alongside the journalists to remove the barriers to the freedom of expression and raise voices against the repressive laws and repression against the journalists.

He said the Awami League government has enacted a repressive and autocratic law, the Digital Security Act. “I condemn it and demand its withdrawal.”

Sohrab recalled that Awami League amended the ICT Act that was enacted during the BNP regime. “The Awami League has increased the punishment through the amendment.”

Senior journalists and current and former leaders of pro-BNP factions of BFUJ and DUJ took part in the discussion.