A parliamentary watchdog has returned a bill, aimed at preventing harassment of journalists in defamation cases, to the law ministry for further clarification.

The parliamentary standing committee on law at a meeting Sunday night sought clarification from the ministry on the bill to revoke warrant orders against journalists and publishers.

Surnajit Sengupta, the committee chairman, told bdnews24.com Monday that the bill would raise a basic question on how people would get redress if journalists and writers harassed people.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed on Jan 11 tabled the bill to amend the century old Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) replacing the word "warrant" with "summon".

The minister told parliament that the bill would stop "unnecessary harassment of journalists and ensure greater press freedom".

Parliament sent the bill to the standing committee for scrutiny before its passage. The standing committee has the authority to change provisions of any bill in line with the constitution.

But a plenary of parliament can also overturn the standing committee's recommendations if it sees fit.

If the bill is passed, no court will be able to issue warrants against newsmen in defamation cases, which are all too common in Bangladesh.

The court could only summon journalists, editors, publishers, writers and others in such cases.

"We have sent the bill back to the ministry for necessary clarification on the bill," Sengupta told bdnews24.com Monday at his parliament office.

Neither the chairman nor the members of the committee disclosed the recommendations of the meeting.

But, Sengupta said: "The minister does not know how the bill was sent to the parliament secretariat for introduction in parliament."

"We have asked the ministry to let us know the justification of the bill though there is no demand from the press and civil society for passage of such bill," he said.

Replying to a question whether the committee could send back a bill tabled in parliament to the ministry, the chairman said, "There is no bar against it".

Sengupta said the officials of the ministry informed us that the long overdue file was initiated during the tenure of the military-backed interim government.

"Why should we take on responsibilities of the caretaker government," he questioned.

The chairman said the bill had only included print media and spared the television and other electronic media.

"This will not give blanket immunity for all types of writers from facing warrant orders," he said.

The chairman also said the bill would create contradictions in legal system as many laws were linked to the CrPC.

Law minister Shafique Ahmed attended the meeting.

Source: bdnews24.com

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