Imprisonment goes, penalty of Tk 25 lakh to be main punishment for defamation: Law Minister

The Cabinet on Monday approved in principle the draft of Cyber Security Act 2023 with the provisions of maximum Tk 25 lakh in fine for publishing defamatory information through digital media, said Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq.

“There will be no provision of jail sentence and the government will impose fine after abolishing the jail term in the Act,” he told reporters after the Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat.

He said that related provisions for cyber security included in the Digital Security Act will be retained in the Act without making any changes.

According to the Section 29 of the Digital Security Act, if any person publishes or transmits any defamatory information as described in section 499 of the Penal Code through Website or in any other electronic format, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 (three) years, or with fine of Tk 5 lakh.

As per the Cyber Security Act-2023, the government has planned to scrap jail terms and impose fines in this section, he said.

“From now on the only punishment is fine in this section. But if anyone fails to pay the fine he would have to serve in jail for three-six months.”

Earlier on Monday, the Cabinet decided to replace the Digital Security Act with the Cyber Security Act 2023, in which sections of the existing law will be amended. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chaired the meeting in the morning.

The name of the law has been changed, and some sections of the law have been amended, the minister added.

On May 3, the law minister said that the Digital Security Act will not be repealed but necessary amendments will be made.

The DSA was enacted on October 8, 2018 with the aim of preventing the spread of sectarianism, extremism, terrorist propaganda, and hatred against religious or ethnic minorities through social media, print media or any other electronic media.

But, since its inception, the DSA has been criticized heavily for its widespread misuse, especially against journalists.