Freedom of the Press and its Constraints - The Canadian Journal of ...

introducing Section 505A into the Bangladesh Penal Code. It goes without saying thatr
Imprisonment of journalists for media offences is a serious impediment to press freedom.
Our findings show that the Special Powers Act contains many undemocratic clauses
which hinder freedom of expression and the press. The use and abuse of the Special Powers
Act (SPA) in the name of protecting security interests has resulted in a steady pattern of
human rights violations. The findings also show the trend of limiting the publication of
newspapers and periodicals by the government. With the existence of these restrictive laws
governing media, it is difficult to support any contention that the press is free in
Bangladesh. The analysis also demonstrates that military governments have gagged the
freedom of the press during the several episodes of military regimes.
Most governments in the Indian Sub-continent have retained a plethora of laws from
the British colonial era to tame or silence the press. Official Secrets Acts and other similar
laws have been used effectively in countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. So, the
media’s democratic role of "watchdog" and "public informer" is certainly hampered by these
kinds of restrictive legislations.
In an emerging democratic society, the media should empower social groups by
acting as a public sphere where all interests interact with one another in seeking to establish
agreement about the direction of society. Critics of the liberal theory assert that for the
media to fulfill the democratic requirements of participation and representation, the media
should be highly accessible to all citizens, including groups within civil society. 60 This
approach can be quite contentious when competing interests collide with each other.
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