Advocates Says Proposed Changes to Telecom Law Don’t Go Far Enough

By Lun Min Mang / Myanmar Times | July 11, 2017

The proposed changes on the country’s Telecommunications Law as announced by government are not enough to uphold and protect freedom of expression, said advocates for the abolishment of the section 66(d).

A senior government official at the State Counsellor’s office has informed reporters last week during an informal meeting that the proposed law would be sent soon to the parliament, with few amendments.

The government’s Gazette has already published on its social page the proposed version of the amendments of the law, which rule that a bail must be granted for any case charged with the Section 66 except subsection (c).

Maung Saung Kha, a poet and advocate for the removal of the section 66(d) from Telecommunications Law said the government’s proposed version for the amendments does not reflect much of their recommendations.

“For instance, the proposed version of the amendments is not in line with the international human rights standard because they still bar freedom of expression to certain degree,” he said.

A coalition of about two dozen organisations advocating the abolishment of the section in June met with the parliamentary bill committee of the Upper House and Minister for Transport and Communication and delivered their recommendations.

A research team has been recording and collecting data since last year on how the Section 66(d) has been used in 71 cases up to June 27. The team said the ministry received 166 requests seeking permission from the ministry to precede legal course up to last month.

However, the proposed changes leave Section 80(a) of the law unchanged, which states all offenses under the law are cognizable offenses, granting more authority to police to make arrests without a warrant and to start investigation with or without permission from a court.

This has created concern among the civil society groups and advocates of the abolishment of the section of the law.

“The only thing we hope now is for the parliamentary committee to make more changes for freedom of expression,” said Maung Saung Kha.

The government has sent the bill to the parliamentary bill committee on July 7, the groups said. They called on the government and parliament to seek consultation with civil society groups before moving forward and not to hurry the amendment process.

As with the proposed changes, charging individuals with the offenses described in Section 66(c) and (d), and Section 68(a) no longer need permission from the ministry.

The amendment advocates said in a statement released yesterday that this has annulled the ministry’s right to decide if any specific case should be charged with the provisions of the law or not.

The offenses in the Section 65, 66 (a), (b), (d) are regarded as bail-able cases, according to the government’s proposed changes.

Any court must not accept legal charge with section 66(d) against someone unless it is raised by the person that directly suffer the consequence of offenses or someone that the aggrieved person mandates to take the legal course on behalf of him or her, said the proposed changes.

Concerning the content of Section 66(d), the proposal has removed the phrases “coercing”, “restraining wrongfully” and “causing undue influencing” from the original version of the law, while someone can sue the other for “extorting”, “defaming”, “disturbing” and “threatening” him with the use of telecommunication technology by exercising the rights in section of the law.

Representatives from the coalition for the abolishment of Section 66(d) yesterday met with Yanghee Lee, UN’s Special Human Rapporteur of Human Rights situation on Myanmar and discussed the situation of freedom of expression in Myanmar.