Digital Act against cyber crime, not against free press

Senior Correspondent: Law Minister Anisul Huq said the Digital Security Act has been made to control cyber crime, not to prevent free speech and free press.

The Minister told this to the reporters following a meeting with the Editors’ Council at the secretariat on Thursday noon.

Anisul Huq said, “We had an effective discussion with Editor’s Council over several articles of the act. They expressed their concerns over the articles. We reached a decision that their concerns are logical for the major part.”

“We hope, we will be able to successfully remove the concerns made by the Editor’s Council,” he added.

The Minister, “We held a meeting with print media today. Later, a meeting will be held with electronic media, if it is necessary. Actually, we want to materialise an act which will be acceptable and timely as well."

After the meeting, Editor’c Council secretary, also Editor of the Daily Star, Mahfuz Anam told reporters that we expressed concerns over the Articles 21, 25, 28, 31, 32 and 43 of the proposed act in the meeting.

“We tried our level best to make understand the ministers about our concerns. They accepted the matters with positive manners. Hope, the act will really be against cyber crime, not against the free press and speech,” he added.

risingbd/Dhaka/April 19, 2018/Naymuddin/A K Azad