The Dhaka Wire
Conduct Bill Passed In Midnight Sitting
The House rose past midnight to pass a law widening the penalties for what may be said online, handing regulators new powers to order material removed. Members voted with the chamber half empty and the public benches cleared.
Rights groups, awake and unhappy, warned of a chilling effect on ordinary speech and on the press. Supporters of the bill called it a measure for public order. Few outside the chamber had seen the final text.
What the law will mean in practice, for a reporter, an editor, or a reader, is the question every desk in the city is now asking. It is also, as it happens, the first thing you will learn to weigh.
Some four thousand at a knitwear unit plan to down tools tomorrow. Management did not reply.
The count tops three hundred again as clinics fill with the short of breath.
A six with the last delivery, and a nation that stopped to watch.
A new sub-editor reports to the desk at dawn. The morning's copy awaits a decision.
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