Law Provisions for Journalists Facing Defamation Cases

Journalist legal provisions facing defamation situations exist to protect individual moral and professional reputation from unfair attacks. The law aims to balance the protection of personal reputation between freedom of speech and freedom of press. If the reporter is facing defamation lawsuits, he can provide a defense. The reason is that in order to use this defense, one of these defenses, journalists have to prove that what they wrote is basically correct.

For example, in Bangladesh, we are wary of the tendency to prosecute journalists for defamation cases by so-called parent government people. Journalists will face imprisonment of up to 14 years according to the provisions of the Information and Communication Technology Law. Since the law did not provide warranties to journalists, over 2017 alone, more than 20 journalists were prosecuted under section 57 of the law. Field reports in ethnic areas affected by the conflict are most affected. Media entry into these areas remains sporadic and arresting journalists, drivers and information sources is still a common practice. When reporting the news, the continuing role of the military on the political arena of the country means that certain topics are forbidden.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the Constitution, and in general it is respected in practice. However, there is still an old defamation law that journalists are still guilty until they prove they are innocent. The bills of libelousness proposed at the end of 2006 were passed by the Senate earlier this year, but still controversial in Parliament. The proposed law will abolish criminal, inflammatory and obscene situations, but it allows you to be sentenced to a maximum of five years sentence. The law also includes the defense of "rational publications", and when journalists act in accordance with professional ethics and public interests they are responsible for slanderous statements. The law is expected to be officially approved by an independent reporter inspector and a newly established press conference. The ombudsman appointed in August 2007 will be in charge of investigating and arbitrating public complaints.