Editors’ Council on Sunday condemned the cancellation of accreditation cards of journalists and restrictions imposed on their entry to the secretariat by the interim government on security grounds.
Such directives are contrary to the independent journalism and a threat as well, said a statement of the council issued two days after the directives given on Friday against the backdrop of the overnight fire incident at the bureaucratic hub.
Reviewing two statements issued by the interim government on Saturday and Sunday on the same issue amid criticisms, the council welcomed the decision about reviewing accreditation cards and reissuance of those soon.
The council said that it had scope to assist with the reviewing process to identify the non-professional persons accredited with cards while noting that a wholesale restriction on the entry had always been seen an attack on independent journalism globally.
Calling the decision illogical and unwarranted, the council said that the decision to review the accreditation cards without discussing the issue with stakeholders was disappointing and an act of expressing autocracy, according to the statement signed by the Editors’ Council president Mahfuz Anam and general secretary Dewan Hanif Mahmud.         Â
Finding a similarity between the current controversial decision and the entry restriction on reporters to Bangladesh Bank during the fascist regime of the ousted Awami League, the council said that the interim government had recently approved the draft Cyber Security Ordinance 2024 to meet the long-standing demand of cancellation of the infamous cyber security act enacted by the previous regime.
The authority of police given in the proposed Cyber Security Ordinance 2024, however, is the same to that of the previous cyber security act, said the council.
The council asks the interim government to address concerns in the proposed Cyber Security Ordinance 2024 after discussing the matter with stakeholders.