Islamabad - Representatives of media, civil society and legal fraternity as well as information technology experts on Sunday castigated the government over what they called an attempt to infringe the right of freedom of expression through proposed legislation on cyber crime.
The government has got approved the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Bill 2015 from the National Assembly’s standing committee and forwarded it to the House for legislation.
In an interactive session organized by National Press Club Islamabad, the participants expressed their serious apprehensions over some controversial clauses in the proposed legislation. They asked the government to review the ambiguous terms that can be misused for arm twisting of media persons, social media activists and the society at large. They said that government has got political objectives behind cybercrime bill and wants to gag freedom of expression and freedom of speech through the legislation.
Usama Khilji, a free speech campaigner, said the government failed to take civil society and representative of IT industry into confidence over the cybercrime legislation. “In a democracy, it is unfair for a government to come up with legislation on a sensitive issue without active participation of the citizens and relevant stakeholders,” he said. He said the government wants to serve its political objectives through the legislation as some of the clauses of the bill infringe upon freedom of expression of the citizens. “If the bill is passed in its present form, the government will get the legal powers to block news websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts,” he said. Khilji, however, said that he is not against the bill but some of its clauses must be amended.
Tahir Malik, Professor at National University of Modern Languages, said that a society cannot progress without critical thinking and fair competition to acquire modern techniques and skills. “All segments of the society including journalists, doctors and engineers should be engaged to raise voice against the cybercrime bill as it is bound to curtail freedom of expression if passed by the Parliament,” he said. Malik said the mainstream and social media are the modern age tools that help democratic governments address social issues like poverty and crime.
Shaharyar Khan, President National Press Club, likened the cybercrime bill to Press and Publication Ordinance promulgated by President Ayub Khan in 1960. “It is unfortunate that a democratic government wants to impose a law on journalists and the citizens that even dictators failed to do,” he said, adding the journalists’ concerns about the bill would be conveyed to the government.
Khan warned if the government tried to pass the bill in its present form, journalists would stage protest demonstrations against the government across the country, besides blocking coverage of parliamentarians.
Speaking on the occasion, Syed Ahmad, a representative of Pakistan Software Houses Association, said the cybercrime bill in its present form will hamper foreign investment in the IT industry.
“The government should not consider the technology a threat to it and must consider amendments in some of its controversial clauses,” he said.
Business models of news organisations are changing as they are fast turning to internet and social media, he said, adding the government should apply forward thinking to strengthen journalists instead of curtailing their freedom of expression.