Freedom of expression in Bangladesh

Three bloggers have recently been killed in Bangladesh. They were killed for promoting secular themes in Bangladesh. From the bloggers' points of view, they are freethinkers, secular and atheists. [And] it is their right to think freely with the right of 'freedom of expression'. Freedom of expression is a common human right in most of the democratic countries. This right has given by the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and Article 39 of the Bangladesh Constitution; where it says that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Most of the people know about freedom of expression but how many people know the precise way to exercise this right? Are we free to exercise this right without any restriction? Do we have any duties and responsibilities which are related to the freedom of expression?

Article 20(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that 'any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law'. This Article clearly says that people are not completely free to express their views on religious matters and a certain degree of international consensus that the right of freedom of religion must, in order to be meaningfully protected, entail a right to be free from insults and offence directed at one's religious practices, beliefs or teachings. Furthermore, if we see the Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) then we can clearly identify the duties and responsibilities that may be subject to restrictions prescribed by law for protection of reputation or right of others. Furthermore, Article 17 of the ECHR talked about prohibition of abuse of rights. It says that you cannot perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms, if you do so, you will be restricted. In Europe, 'freedom of expression' right is not that much wide and each state has enough 'margin of appreciation' to protect the national interest. In our country, we do not have such laws which can control any activities against any religion.

Now let us discuss the nature of those bloggers who have recently been killed in Bangladesh. They said they were seculars; but what is the nature of 'secularism' to us? Secularists should not be against any individual who has religious faith. "Secularism" is a term which was invented by a British writer named Holyoake. From his point of view, secularism is a concept that will promote a social order separate from religion but, of course it has to be without actively dismissing or criticising religious belief. But what actually are our bloggers doing?

In the context of Bangladeshi bloggers, what we have found is that bloggers mostly use words of hatred against religions. They are randomly criticising, insulting and also trying to justify that the religions are not correct. I am not sure from where the bloggers have got the right to insult others' religions. I think no civilised nation has adopted the law of 'right to insult' others. Of course you may be a freethinker but you are not free to insult others' beliefs. As a secularist, you can access your right to 'freedom of expression' but that has to be with due respect of others' beliefs. You must not forget your duties and responsibilities relating to freedom of expression.

However, it will not be fair to justify the acts of those criminals who have killed the bloggers. Those brutal murderers were completely in the wrong and against the laws of Bangladesh. People should not forget that we have an active judiciary whose duty is to ensure justice. The government should carefully look into the matter and bring them to justice to protect the future bloggers. On the other hand, the government should re-examine the 'freedom of expression' with regard to right to religious matters. We may need some censorship to protect the bloggers as well as the religious believers.

The writer is Legal Research Assistant, Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA). Email: rbd3711@hotmail.com