| Government should lift websites ban,
explain 'national security' threat THE government's latest move to discreetly block access to a number of file sharing sites on the worldwide web, including the popular youtube.com, is tantamount to a kind of club-fisted censorship that can have no place in a modern democracy, not least because of its shallow understanding of technology. While a top official of the government admitted to New Age on Sunday that the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission blocked access to the sites, and is empowered to do so on 'the grounds of national security', there has been no official comment on the specific content that the government wishes to restrict access to. One can only surmise, therefore, that it is access to audio and video related to the February 25-26 BDR rebellion and its aftermath that the government is seeking to block. If that is indeed the case, and if the materials have a highly sensitive nature that threatens the country's national security, what good is it to block Bangladeshi citizens' access, if the rest of the world can access this material freely? Surely the government cannot argue that this information takes on a national security threat to Bangladesh only in the hands of its own citizens but remains innocuous in the hands of foreign governments.
One of the most politically empowering aspects of the worldwide web is the idea that no single authority owns it, nor reserves the right to block the diversity of information and political opinion expressed through it. And while this is not the first time that a government has sought to block its citizen's access to information on the web in an effort to manage and control public opinion, such efforts have mostly failed. This is because cyber-technology has developed a tremendous capacity to outstrip the ability of the blunt censorship tools that governments often employ to block the public's access to information on the web. There are dozens of free services already in place that allow the most novice of users to bypass government restrictions, through dummy proxies and the use of alternate file sharing sites. Meanwhile, in restricting access to information that may cast the government in poor light, Sheikh Hasina's democratically elected regime is inviting comparisons with intolerant regimes elsewhere in the world which resort to such measures to silence critics or impose totalitarian ideologies.
Given that the people of this country have time and again risen up in protest against totalitarian rulers, and have earned their democratic rights and liberties at a heavy price, we demand an immediate explanation as to the specific 'national security' grounds on which this censorship is being exercised. The government should not only clarify in parliament the rationale for this censorship, but immediately reverse this brazenly undemocratic effort to control the public's access to information.
http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/10/edit.html | Bangladesh imposes YouTube block |  Soldiers search border guards returning for duty in Dhaka | The video-sharing web site YouTube has been blocked by Bangladesh after a recording of a meeting between the PM and army officers was posted. The meeting took place two days after a mutiny by border guards in Dhaka that left more than 70 people dead. The recordings cover about 40 minutes of a three-hour meeting and reveal how angry many in the military were at the government's handling of the crisis. YouTube had been blocked in the "national interest", officials said. Hundreds of guardsmen have been arrested in connection with the mutiny but hundreds more are still being sought. Jeered The chairman of the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, Zia Ahmed, said the decision to block access to YouTube, and another website, esnips, was taken because the audio recordings they hosted threatened to worsen the current situation. "The government can take any decision to stop any activity that threatens national unity and integrity," he said.  Sheikh Hasina has been both praised and criticised over the mutiny | The government has not said when the sites will be unblocked. The meeting in question took place after the mutiny in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters two weeks ago had collapsed. Some 54 army officers were among those killed. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina agreed to talk to officers to persuade them that her strategy to end the mutiny had worked and had in fact minimised casualties. "We want answers," some of the officers, who numbered more than 2,000, shouted at Sheikh Hasina. Her attempts to speak are often jeered and drowned out. The BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka says there had been anger in the army over the government's decision to negotiate with the mutineers, rather than immediately sending in troops to crush their revolt. Many in the army believe the move gave the border guards more time to kill the officers and rape their wives. One officer at the meeting tells the prime minister: "I do not understand who gave you that idea that it has to be solved politically... rebellion has to be crushed with force. "But you have not done that... politics is not applicable everywhere.... if one tank would have gone there or a commando platoon landed there, the [BDR] would have fled like ants... but none went... all my officers were killed helplessly… and you failed to do anything." | |
