DU journalism dept protests Section 57

Teachers and students of Dhaka University’s journalism department today protested the Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act, in the purview of a lawsuit against a former student.

Under the banner of Students of Mass Communication and Journalism (MCJ), they staged a human chain at the base of Aparajeyo Bangla on campus this afternoon.

READ MORE: The trap of Section 57

“The government has not yet taken any step to revoke Section 57 despite general disapproval,” said Prof Mofizur Rahman, head of mass communication and journalism department.

He also urged the government to scrap all the lawsuits filed under Section 57.

Acting dean of social science faculty, Prof AJM Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan said, “Section 57 was introduced to stop misuse of social networking site. Now it is being used to harass people”

Asaduzzaman Kajol, Marzia Rahman, lecturers of mass communication and journalism department and Syed Mahfuzul Haque Marzan of criminology department were also present there among others.

Najmul Hossain, a senior reporter of Jamuna Television, was sued for his June 23 Facebook post under the Section 57. The plaintiff, Hazrat Ali Belal, a lawyer of Dinajpur, named three others for sharing the post.  

Before him some other journalists, including a veteran Probir Sikder, was implicated in a lawsuit under the section – labelled as a black law by the experts.