It seems the Bangladesh government’s favorite token move to censor media is to claim the property right holder or distributor does not possess the legal title to provide that particular service.
In November 2009, the government shut down a 24 hour news channel on the grounds that the owners did not possess the proper documents to broadcast content. In this instance, the government has shuttered a photography exhibition mounted at the Drik Gallery that points out inconsistencies in the government’s anti-crime police enforcement.
Interestingly enough the police shut down the whole gallery even though the fault rested– so they claimed–in the fact that one exhibition on one floor of the gallery did not have the necessary permits to mount the show.
Shahidul Alam, the artist who mounted the show noted that the gallery had put up shows before that though were inaugurated by the current prime minister, nevertheless did not require any permission or legal title.
The government’s move seems to suggest that the proposition ex-ante required that any piece of work that might might unsettle popular opinion requires government sanction. The problem with that formulation is that there does not exist any obvious way of determining the content and context of work that will necessarily rile popular opinion. Therefore the moves is tantamount to the requirement that the transmission and electronic transfiguration of any content whatsoever be sanctioned by the government. This is a nearly Platonic ideal, realized today and hereafter by the sitting government of Bangladesh.
The government’s crackdown must be challenged. Otherwise, this government will have been allowed to control its citizen’s thoughts. Otherwise, this democratic government will be no better than any other dictatorial government that preceded it or that even today runs the show behind torn iron curtains.
