NEW DELHI: Bangladesh announced on Wednesday that it constituted a cyber crime tribunal while works are underway to toughen related laws as part of a series of steps to prevent exploitation religion and defamation of Islam on the internet.
“We are amending the both the Right to Information Act and the Penal Code toughening punitive measures for hurting the people’s religious sentiments,” law minister Barrister Shafique Ahmad told a press conference also joined by Home Minister Mahiuddin Khan Alamgir and two state ministers.
Ahmad told the press conference that the government constituted the country’s first ever cyber crime tribunal appointing a judge in the capital while a process was underway to set up identical special courts at divisional cities including Chittagong.
He said a government committee comprising two Islamic scholars was constituted to identify websites which were either exploiting or defaming the religion while three people were arrested already in line with their recommendations.
For activists, they told Bikyanews.com that this was part of the ongoing “situation” facing online commenting on social media networks and called on the international community to voice concern for freedom of speech.
“We are a strong people and we speak out all the time, but the government is acting inappropriately and this must end,” said Sanjeev, a 21-year-old university student. He told Bikyanews.com that he and his friends who comment online are now living in fear of arrest and violence.
“The police and the government do not protect us anymore and are chasing us online and offline for their own selfish reasons. I think it is wrong and will lead to large protests if it doesn’t end.”
Source: bikyanews