Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) condemns and expresses concern over Social Welfare Minister Mr. Syed Mohsin Ali’s comment regarding “Freedom of Media”.

According to various news sources, it has been known that on 22 July 2014, Social Welfare Minister Mr. Syed Mohsin Ali made this remark in a meeting held at the Secretariat regarding the Government’s legislation that may thwart freedom of media. Referring to the news reports on 7 murders committed at Narayanganj, he remarked, “You can’t just do whatever you want to; you are showing the same news repeatedly and creating a sentiment among people, agitating them in the process.” From the news sources, it has also been known that the Communication Minister also expressed his discontent on the media in a remark recently. It has been informed that the repealed section on freedom of media, of the Printing, Presses and Publications Act 1973, has recently been considered to bring back again by the Ministry of Information.

Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) thinks that such actions are thwarting the freedom of media and peoples’ right to expression gravely. Although the freedom to express thought and conscience and of media are considered as fundamental rights according to Article 39 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, incidents of threatening media and journalists have kept increasing.

We think that, for the outgrowth of democratic system of governance, it is extremely important to secure the freedom of speech. There are existing legal procedures to deal with publishing falsified or erroneous news. But this kind of threat and comments made by the representatives of the people against media makes the environment extremely vulnerable to exercise freedom of speech. We expect that the Government will take necessary actions to ensure constitutional guarantee for media to exercise their freedom. We also urge the government representatives to refrain from making such comments.