The High Court has banned the publication of any kind of photos and identities of living or dead women who have been sexually abused and raped.
At the same time, the court has issued a rule as to why the inactivity of the defendant should not be declared illegal by stopping the disclosure of photos and identities of the rape victims.
A bench of the High Court comprising Justice Farah Mahbub and Justice SM Moniruzzaman passed the order after hearing a writ petition on Monday (March 8).
Barrister Mahfuzur Rahman Milon appeared for the writ petition. Deputy Attorney General Samarendra Nath Biswas represented the state.
Earlier on January 19, a writ petition was filed in the High Court seeking a ban on the publication of pictures and identities of living or dead women victims of rape and sexual harassment. At the same time, a writ petition was filed against those involved in publishing such pictures.
Barrister Mahfuzur Rahman Milon filed the writ petition on behalf of the Justice Watch Foundation. In the writ petition, the concerned persons including the Secretary of the Ministry of Law and the Secretary of the Ministry of Information were made defendants.
Regarding the writ petition, Mahfuzur Rahman Milon said that according to Section 14 of the Women and Child Abuse Prevention Act, no media can publish any kind of picture and identity of a woman or a child who has been sexually abused and raped. But now it is seen that these are happening all the time. In this regard, the application was made by adding some reports published in the newspaper.
He said pictures of an English medium school student who had recently been raped had been published in most of the country's media. The incident of publishing this picture has hurt us. So I filed a writ petition to stop the publication of the photo-identities of the victims.