March 26, 2021
Minister of Information and Communications Mohamed Rahman Swaray has lashed out at what he calls outlandish comments that are decidedly bent on politicizing the draft Cyber-crime bill to the extent of presuming that it is meant to clamp down on critical views on social media as the 2023 elections draws close.
Minister Swaray says it is an illiterate outburst to hold such a position, adding that people who are surmising issues contained in the bill have not read it to understand what is contained thereof.
Some critics of the bill are suggesting that the bill is a rehash of the Public Order Act. Minister Swaray takes great exceptions to such perception saying whereas the Public Order Act makes truth as no defense; the bill is actually about promoting truth based on evidence.
The bill was submitted to parliament March 18th this year and because its import has been twisted and misrepresented to elicit fears in certain quarters, Parliament has called for further engagements to deepen understanding of what it entails.
Minister Swaray says the bill has a human rights thrusts and government has the moral and legal obligation to protect citizens online and offline life.
“When we talk about internet super highway it means there are traffic rules to observe to avoid terrible accidents.”
He argues that the law itself is long overdue, indicating that since the ACE cables landed in 2014, the country was under obligation to introduce accompanying legislations that the past government failed to pull off.
“As a responsible government that cares for the youthful demographics between the ages of 18 to 35 we think there is a compelling need to protect citizens that are active online to responsibly use the space.”
He says Sierra Leone is signatory to a couple of international treaties including the Malabo Convention that encourages African Union member countries to recognize the need to protect critical cyber/ICT infrastructure, personal data and encourage free flow of information with the aim of developing a credible digital space in Africa.
The minister says it was shameful at an AU meeting where Sierra Leone was among countries highlighted as having failed to enact the law.
He reveals that Council of Europe has been supportive in the drafting of the bill, with three experts coming in the country to guide the process.
Contrary to suggestion that the draft bill has not gone through a consultative process, the minister insists that various stakeholders, state and non-state actors, met for three days at RADISON BLU to provide inputs in the validation of the draft bill.
He described the bill as a specialized legislation which provisions are consistent with Commonwealth declaration with the propensity to deal with transnational crimes.
He cited section 35 of the bill that makes safeguards, arguing that in that in these days of rife identity theft, copy right and bad taste content sharing such as porno materials online, penalties must be instituted against criminal using the space.
He has made reference to the Ghana Cyber-crime law that is even harsher than what is put together here in Sierra Leone.
He has alluded to a cocaine plan that landed here in the past that could not be prosecuted because there were no laws to prosecute such case.
He says by all intents and purposes the bill is a people’s bills and cynics should remove their blinkers to read and join the debate to improve the bill.
The ministry has set out on an awareness raising drive around the bill in countryside so that people’s apprehension can be allayed and the legislative process can get underway to enact the bill into law.