THIS is a good move forward for the government to have worked out the draft of the Bangladesh Telecommunication (Amendment) Ordinance 2025, majorly proposing tight control of unauthorised surveillance and unlawful monitoring of citizens. The draft of the legislation, which will replace the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act 2021, has already been made public online to elicit opinions of stakeholders and the public until November 15. The draft proposes that telecommunication connections, any related services or the internet could under no circumstances be shut down, obstructed or restricted irrespective of this and other laws being in force. The draft covers all forms of communications, such as voice calls, messages, internet traffic, call detail records, internet protocol data records, location or other related data. The draft says that interception of communication for political, personal or social purposes would be forbidden and any violation would be punishable by imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of Tk 1 million or both. The draft further says that the legislation being put into force would invalidate all previous or private interception platforms.
The draft mandates the creation of a central lawful interception platform under the home affairs ministry which would run lawful surveillance for designated agencies such as the police and the National Security Intelligence for matters of national security and disciplined forces or related agencies on surveillance requests concerning their personnel or targeted threats and on court sanctions for civilian investigations. The draft proposes that every interception activity would be logged, using multi-layer authentication and role-based access to ensure that agencies which could request surveillance would not access the data beyond their authorised scope. A semi-judicial council, composed of representatives named by the president, prime minister and speaker, along with retired judges, would supervise all interception operations. The council would be responsible for the approval or review of interception requests. But in emergencies such as threats to life or emergency calls, interception could begin immediately pending a formal approval in 72 hours, failing which the interception activities would cease. What the authorities should do is to ensure that the emergency interception provision is not abused. The legislation also mandates the preparation of annual interception reports with details for all surveillance operations. A permanent oversight committee, which would include government and non-governmental representatives, would verify compliance and measures and ensure lawful and transparent data retention.
What the legislation should also ensure is that the interception requests happen in genuine cases and not against people or entities expressing dissent, criticising the government鈥檚 flaws and failures, speaking for justice or championing civil liberties. And, beyond eliciting public opinions online, the government should gather opinions for consideration by ensuring further engagement of people and entities with programmes such as discussions, seminars and symposiums before the draft is put into its final form.