Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Pressure group
OccupyGhana says the real motive behind the ‘Interception of Postal Packets and
Telecommunication Messages Bill’ is just to intrude the privacy of people and
nothing else.
Members of OccupyGhana said
parliament cannot go ahead to pass the bill in its current form and added that
they were willing to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on
Defence and Interior to share ideas on how to make the bill better before its
passage.
Real Concerns
In a letter written
yesterday to parliament, the group expressed concern that a bill of this
magnitude was being ‘rushed’ for passage.
“There is the morbid
eternal fear that without a clear definition of the crimes and offences,
innocent Ghanaians will be monitored for acts that do not fall under crimes,” it
insisted.
“A Bill of such nature,
with the capacity to heavily intrude private lives with possible commercial
implications, cannot be rushed through parliament, having earlier been reclusively
published in the newspapers,” OccupyGhana noted.
International Standards
According to
OccupyGhana, “The Bill does not follow important international legal best
practices, which require that such a Bill must be guided and moderated by
related Acts of Parliament.”
It said, “In the UK,
there are the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and Data Retention
and Investigatory Powers Act, which guide how ‘serious crime’ perpetrators are
investigated. Ghana’s Data Protection
Act is not enough to protect the privacy of innocent Ghanaians.”
The group said the purpose
of the Bill, which is protect national security, fight crime generally and in
particular suppress organized crime, including money laundering, terrorism,
narcotic trafficking and other serious offences and for related matters,’ is
vague and ambiguous, leaving room for misinterpretation and abuse by the
Executive.
National Security
Coordinator
OccupyGhana said it was
objecting to the mandate to be given to the National Security Coordinator to
give oral authorization for the interception of the postal packets and
telecommunication messages of Ghanaians within 48 hours before confirmation
through the law court.
“This means that
innocent Ghanaians can be monitored without any legal authorization by a court
of law. We do not trust the discretion of an appointee not bound by any
Investigatory Powers Act.
“We find it
preposterous and dangerous the requirement that the Justice of the High Court,
appointed by the Chief Justice, to supervise the implementation of this Act and
ascertain whether the provisions of this Act are being complied with, submits
to the National Security Coordinator who is required by the same Act to obtain
interception warrant from a Justice of the High Court sitting in chambers.”
Security Guarantee
The group said the
authorized parties cannot guarantee security of the intercepted messages and
packets and also added that the punishment for the breach of the security of
the intercepted messages and packets is not grave enough to deter the parties
mandated to act on the Bill.
“The request by the
National Security Coordinator from persons who provide public postal service,
cyber communication service, or public telecommunication service to take the
necessary steps for the enforcement of an interception warrant is unfair and
unfortunate because their capacity to afford and manage the enforcement is not
guaranteed. The one who bears the financial cost of the interception is not
stated,” the pressure group underscored.
OccupyGhana called on parliament
to suspend the passing of the Bill in its current state and allow for what it
called “better public and stakeholder engagements to ensure absolute integrity
and competence of the parties or persons involved with the interception of
messages and postal packets.”
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