Digital Security Act, 2018 of Bangladesh: A Study on the Press Freedom and Journalistic Investigation

Abstract

Digital tools became blessing for both general mass and the journalists in Bangladesh but it also came up with different scopes of misapplication. To minimize the offences, the government approved Digital Security Act (DSA) 2018. However, the journalists, right workers and activists became vocal against some sections of the law claiming those would hinder press freedom and freedom of journalistic investigation. They termed the law as ‘black law’ and ‘suppressive in nature’ as to them; there remain scope of misusing against journalist and others. The study researched the ‘kittle’ situation of press freedom and journalist investigation in this context. They key questions was-‘Is the DSA-2018 creating. The key question was- - 2018 creating-Depth Interviewing methods, the relevant sections of the DSA - 2018 and the opinion and evaluation of different stake examined. The collected data evaluated through the theoretical framework of Freedom of Expression concept. The findings revealed: investigative journalists and other media professionals were suffering from a sense of fear; eventually they were censoring their contents which actually went against the standard of freedom of expression.