Controversy mounts over Bangladesh Net spy plans

IN Media Freedom | 12/10/2003

Under the plan, Bangladesh’s 2001 Telecommunications Act would be amended to allow intercepted Internet communications and phone calls in judicial proceedings.

From the latest issue (10 October 2003) of GILC Alert, the newsletter of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign.

Many observers fear that a new surveillance plan will seriously erode the privacy of Internet users in Bangladesh.

Under the plan, the South Asian nation`s 2001 Telecommunications Act would be amended to allow intercepted Internet communications and phone calls in judicial proceedings. Previously, Bangladeshi authorities could not legally conduct wiretaps, and while it has been rumoured that government agents have engaged in such activities anyway, they were not allowed to present the information gathered through wiretaps in court. The proposal also calls for government access to customer information that is held by telecommunications providers, and would alter the Act so that its general privacy guarantee would be subject to "national security laws."

Not surprisingly, the plan has been savaged by a number of experts and organizations. Indeed, the proposal is being compared to numerous past Bangladeshi restrictions on personal communications, such as requiring security clearances before obtaining mobile phones. Telecom experts Abu Sayed Khan warned that the amendments "represent a
fundamental breach of our right to communicate. If they are enacted it will be a devastating blow for freedom of speech and will turn the country into a police state. Bangladesh already has some of the most restrictive laws in relation to internet and telephone access in the
whole of Asia." Similar concerns were expressed by Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF-a GILC member): "New information technology allows greater monitoring of personal messages and the Bangladesh Government must respect the privacy of its citizens and their right to
communicate freely."

An RSF press release about the proposal is posted at
http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=7961

Read Alistair Lawson, "Anger at Bangladeshi snooping plans," BBC News
Online, 23 September 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3131386.stm

See also Mustak Hossain, "Move on to tap phone calls, bust e-mails,"
The Daily Star (BG), 4 September 2003 at
http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/msg01049.html

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