Cyber law for court battle

A Dar es Salaam resident surfs the Internet on her tablet yesterday. Sonn, she will have to be wary, not only over the materials she sends to friends; she must also be wary of what she receives as well, for either way she could end up in trouble under the recently passed Cybercrimes Law PHOTO | FILE      

By Henry Mwangonde,The Citizen Correspondent

In Summary

• The country co-ordinator for the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDS), Mr Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa told The Citizen yesterday that a combination of  human rights groups are working on the possibility of going to court in the event of President Jakaya Kikwete appending his signature to the bills.

Dar es Salaam. Human rights activists have declared they would go to court to file a petition challenging the newly-passed Statistics and Cybercrime bills in case they are signed into law.

The country co-ordinator for the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDS), Mr Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa told The Citizen yesterday that a combination of  human rights groups are working on the possibility of going to court in the event of President Jakaya Kikwete appending his signature to the bills.

“We have not sent any notice directly to the government because we consider issuing a press statement the fastest way of airing our concern,” he said.

 He said they are sorting out some few things as they await government response while pondering their next move, which would entail going to court should their appeal go unheeded to.

“The statement we issued is enough to let the powers-that-be know what the public feels… we have not heard any feedback from the government up now, but we are still waiting while hoping the President won’t sign the bills as they would undermine many good things that he often says he stands,” said Mr Ngurumwa.

 In a joint statement that a coalition of NGOs issued last week, the activists call for a united rebuff of the offending bills by all other human rights stakeholders, noting that if they become laws, they will steeply stifle the people’s constitutional rights. They urged President Kikwete not to endorse them for doing so would stifle citizen journalism and whistleblowing as well as adding draconian laws to the already existing ones.

The statement was signed by THRDS, Sikika, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) Jamii Forum, and the Tanzania Network of Legal Aid Providers (TANLAP).

They argue that the Statistics Bill gives excessive powers to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and by signing into law such a document, then the country would effectively disqualify any research information given by other institutions and academic centres, something they said is not expected in a democratic country like Tanzania.

Mr Ngurumwa told journalists last week that the Statistics Bill, for example, calls for any data to be approved by NBS and that it has indicated a heavy punishment to media houses, NGOs and academic institutions unless they first present their findings to NBS for verification.

He said in total the law has come to erase and discourage any research work done by private and public institutions.