79% journalists think DSA a barrier

Around 79 per cent of journalists who responded to a survey found the Digital Security Act a barrier to working freely in Bangladesh during the Covid pandemic, reflecting a poor and deteriorating condition of press freedom in the country, according to a new study.

Besides, the study also revealed that 23 per cent of journalists faced extreme threats while working during the pandemic and 13 per cent of them faced restrictions by their editors from publishing particular reports on certain matters, said a press release on Tuesday.

Centre for Governance Studies (CGS), a governance and research platform, conducted the study on 'Health Journalism and Safety-Security Measures of the Journalists during the COVID-19 Pandemic' with an aim to investigate the impacts of the Covid-19 on the journalists of Bangladesh.

The sample size for the study consisted of 100 media workers from national newspapers, electronic media, online media and news agencies.