Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) has criticised the Information and Communication Technology Act and the proposed digital security law of Bangladesh.

It has also said growing media self-censorship is the result of endemic violence against journalists and media outlets in the country.

Releasing its annual World Press Freedom Index 2018 yesterday, RSF, also known as Reporters Without Borders, said, “In 2017, at least 25 journalists and several hundred bloggers and Facebook users were prosecuted under the Information and Communication Technology Act, which penalises online content that is regarded as defamatory or blasphemous.”

According to the index, Bangladesh's position remains 146th, the same as last year.

According to the Paris-based global media watchdog’s report, Myanmar, India and Pakistan are in better positions at 137th, 138th and 139th respectively.

Norway has topped the index, while Sweden and Netherlands have finished in second and third positions respectively.

The Bangladesh chapter of the report said, “Instead of amending this law [ICT act], Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government proposed a new digital security law in early 2018 with vaguely-worded provisions that would allow the authorities to clamp down even more on dissent.

 “Journalists and bloggers who resist censorship or self-censorship on these subjects risk life imprisonment or the death penalty, while Islamist militants often issue online calls for the murder of outspoken secularist bloggers and writers.

It added while there was real pluralism, media self-censorship was  growing as a result of violence against journalists and media outlets, and the almost systematic impunity.