{"id":5184,"date":"2021-10-29T10:52:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T10:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response"},"modified":"2021-10-29T11:25:52","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T11:25:52","slug":"saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response","title":{"rendered":"SAEF, EFL accuse govt of lopsided response"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) has joined the Editors Forum of Lesotho (EFL) in calling upon the government of Lesotho to prioritise restructuring the Computer Crime and Cyber Security Bill of 2021 and other abusive laws and ensure that these conform to international human rights standards.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement Willie Mponda, SAEF chairman, and Teboho Khatebe Molefi, EFL chairman, also condemn the gazetting of The Communications (Subscriber Identity Module and Device Registration) Regulations, 2021, by the government of Lesotho.<\/p>\n

In a statement released this week the media bodies said the expectation is that under international human rights law governments are obliged to protect people from harm resulting from a criminal activity carried out through the internet. However, their view is that Lesotho government\u2019s responses to cybercrime are disproportionate, and can undermine rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile cybercrime poses a real threat to people\u2019s human rights and livelihoods, we believe efforts to address it need to protect and not undermine citizens\u2019 rights and we strongly oppose the Lesotho government\u2019s overbroad and aggressive cybercrime laws that threaten people\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the proposed cybercrime law and the approved communications regulations are overly broad and criminalise online expression, association, and assembly \u2013 encroaching on the rights of the public,\u201d reads the statement.<\/p>\n

The statement further articulates that steps by the government to address cybercrime also risk legitimising abusive practices and could even be used as an excuse to silence government critics and undermine privacy.<\/p>\n

SAEF and the EFL further note that the tabled Bill serves only to close space for civil society and deprive citizens of their rights, especially the right to freedom of expression and association, whereas they should bolster protection of freedom of expression and other fundamental rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cSAEF and its chapter EFL have observed that national cybercrime laws in various parts of the world already unduly restrict rights and are being used to persecute journalists, human rights defenders, technologists, opposition politicians, lawyers, religious reformers, artists, among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call upon the government of Lesotho to prioritise restructuring these abusive laws to conform with international human rights standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny effort to address cybercrime needs to reinforce, not undermine, freedom of expression and other human rights,\u201d the statement continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, this process should be open and transparent, and that civic bodies, the media fraternity, and human rights groups should be consulted and their views considered,\u201d the editors said.<\/p>\n

The forums also noted that they both strongly feel that the proposed regulations contain provisions that threaten the right to protection of the law and the right to freedom of expression, among other rights, under the constitution of Lesotho.<\/p>\n

The Bill, they added, is inconsistent with regional and international standards and instruments on human rights, such as the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection, the Malabo Convention.<\/p>\n

The Media Institute of Southern African (MISA) Lesotho Chapter and the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) only last week also said it will be a tragedy for Basotho if the Bill is passed in its present form.<\/p>\n

MISA Lesotho and TRC made their separate submissions to the portfolio committee last week Monday and Tuesday respectively. \u201cThe most prominent characteristic of the Bill is that it does not strike a balance between civil liberties and the government interest in \u2018national security\u2019 and law enforcement,\u201d bodies said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government, through its created agency, assumes extreme and extensive powers in policing cyberspace. The government powers in terms of the Bill are arbitrary and limitations of the rights and freedoms not demonstrably justifiable,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge has been to con\ufb02ate the two,\u201d MISA Lesotho National Director, Lekhetho Ntsukunyane, told the committee.<\/p>\n

Ntsukunyane said his organisation\u2019s comprehensive analysis of the Bill realised that in considering illegal access to computer data, the Bill did not provide a clear de\ufb01nition of illegal access.<\/p>\n

\u201cSection 21 of the Bill deals with illegal access, but it does so in vague terms.<\/p>\n

Therefore, the recommendation is that illegal access should be clearly de\ufb01ned under the interpretation section and there must also be clear provisions in the law,\u201d he said. The Bill was presented to parliament by then Minister of Communications, Science and Technology, Keketso Sello, on March 23, this year.<\/p>\n

The presentation was met with outrage from activist groups which said they were \u201cextremely worried\u201d that the Bill was drafted by the relevant government ministry \u201cwithout consulting all the parties that would be affected by the said bill once it becomes law.<\/p>\n

\u201d The Bill is for an Act that will make provision for offences relating to the misuse of electronic communication devices and electronic networks. It seeks to regulate jurisdiction and powers of investigation, search, access and seizure and collection of evidence in respect of computer crime.<\/p>\n

The Act will also make provision for the designation and protection of critical information infrastructure, impose obligations on electronic communications service providers and financial institutions to assist in the investigations of cybercrimes and report such crimes.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) has joined the Editors Forum of Lesotho (EFL) in calling upon the government of Lesotho to prioritise restructuring the Computer Crime and Cyber Security Bill of 2021 and other abusive laws and ensure that these conform to international human rights standards. In a joint statement Willie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,1008],"class_list":["post-5184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-saef"],"yoast_head":"\nSAEF, EFL accuse govt of lopsided response - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) has joined the Editors Forum of Lesotho (EFL) in calling upon the government o ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SAEF, EFL accuse govt of lopsided response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) has joined the Editors Forum of Lesotho (EFL) in calling upon the government o ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-29T10:52:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-29T11:25:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-617bda23ebf18.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"SAEF, EFL accuse govt of lopsided response\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-29T10:52:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-29T11:25:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\"},\"wordCount\":840,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-617bda23ebf18.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"SAEF\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/saef-efl-accuse-govt-of-lopsided-response\",\"name\":\"SAEF, EFL accuse govt of lopsided response - 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