Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh has conveyed to the USA that the Digital Security Act (DSA) is not meant for restricting the freedom of press, noting that the government believes in freedom of press.
“We said we enacted the Digital Security Act, but it is not to curb the freedom of press. Awami League believes in freedom of press,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen conveyed to the US side during his meeting with the United States’ Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Tuesday.
Momen mentioned the presence of a huge number of newspapers and private television channels which he described as “hyperactive”.
At the meeting, Secretary of State Blinken expressed concerns about “violence against and intimidation of the media and civil society,” including under the Digital Security Act, according to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel.
Appraising the US Secretary of State on the ongoing and completed works in labour sector reforms in Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Momen hoped that these efforts would be duly acknowledged and appreci-ated through stronger economic partnership between the two countries.
Secretary Blinken lauded the ongoing US-Bangladesh consultative process in improving the labour situa-tion in Bangladesh.
Momen highlighted Bangladesh’s progress in terms of labor standards and urged the US side to consider Bangladesh for funding under the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
DFC is America’s development finance institution and it partners with the private sector to finance solu-tions to the most critical challenges facing the developing world today.
