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Press Release

The Digital Security Act (DSA) 2018, in the past three years has drawn severe condemnation from human rights organizations at home and abroad. The law has severely disrupted the freedom of expression in Bangladesh. Journalists and citizens of various walks of society have been victimized for voicing their opinion online. According to the different media reports, more than 1500 cases have been filed under the DSA from January 1, 2020 to March, 2021. 925 cases were filed in 2018; 1189 cases in 2019 and 1128 cases in 2020. As a think-tank, The Centre for Governance Studies (CGS) has been able to track 835 cases with detailed information from January 2020 till the 30th of January 2022. In order to highlight this issue, the Centre is organizing a webinar titled, “The Digital Security Act 2018: Who are the Real Victims?” next Thursday 17th February 2022 at 10.00 A.M.

The discussants of the webinar will be SM Rezaul Karim MP, Minister of Fisheries and Livestock; Shirin Akhter MP, General Secretary of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal; Dr. Asif Nazrul, Professor of the University of Dhaka; Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Zahirul Alam, Head of News, NTV; Nurul Haque Nur, Member Secretary, Bangladesh Gono Odhikar Parishad and former VP of DUCSU.

The webinar will be presided over by CGS Chaiman Dr. Manjur Ahmed Chowdhury and will be hosted by CGS Executive Director Zillur Rahman.