Press-Release
on the organization of the debate “Real and imagined threats to human rights posed by proposed IT amendments”, 52nd installment of the “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Series
 
Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”

Debate 52, held on 4 April 2016, brought together the following speakers: Sergiu Sîrbu, Democrat MP; Iulian Rusu, jurist of the European People’s Party; Nadine Gogu, director of the Independent Journalism Center; Natalia Bayram, lawyer at the NGO “La Strada”; Sergiu Ţurcan, head of the National Police Inspectorate’s legal department; Alexei Muntean, representative of the internet provider StarNet. And Veaceslav Bădărău, investigator at the Center against Cybercrimes

The subject is extremely important for at least two reasons: because it concerns large groups of the general public and their privacy rights in particular, and because the proposed amendments have sparked a great deal of controversy. While the stated purpose of the bill, proposed by the Interior Ministry, is to protect children online against sex abusers, the journalistic community, some civil society organizations as well as political parties have met the proposed amendments with alarm. In particular, their concern is that this is just a pretext to create an instrument for the state to abuse the right to freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to privacy and other fundamental human rights.

Moreover, it turns out the issue has a longer history: one or two years ago similar amendments were sharply criticized by civil society. As the issue reappears in the limelight, opponents insist such amendments will generate threats.

The presence of political representatives at this debate was necessary and fruitful, for several reasons: it’s the politicians who decide the essence of amendments and the extent to which they can affect our rights. But before this they should familiarize themselves with the issue, communicate, convince and get convinced by society about the correctness of their political decisions.

The general conclusion of the debate was that the bill should ultimately be adopted, but with significant amendments. The bill’s provisions should not be interpretable.

Director of the Independent Journalism Center Nadine Gogu said in the debate that the bill contains provisions that can be interpreted and this could lead to Internet censorship. “If there are interpretable provisions, we must take steps to eliminate ambiguities so that the implementation conditions are very clear,” she stated.

Jurist of the European People’s Party of Moldova Iulian Rusu said he does not challenge the necessity of protecting the social relations, but he has some questions as to the instruments provided by this bill to the public authorities. “In particular, this refers to the monitoring of electronic communications, especially when it is about violations that pose a smaller social danger,” he stated.

Head of the Law Division of the National Police Inspectorate Sergiu Turcan considers the reaction of civil society to this bill is normal. According to him, the children must be supervised when they use the Internet. “The easiness by which they access the Internet in the Republic of Moldova is very attractive for persons with deviant behavior from other countries, where they do not have access to the Internet so easily. The National Police Inspectorate urges civil society to show social maturity,” he stated.

According to the deputy head of the National Investigations Inspectorate’s Center for Combating Cybercrime Veaceslav Badarau, this bill enables the law enforcement bodies to collect evidence concerning particular crimes. “If the police do not have such instruments, they will be able to investigate particular types of offenses. This facilitates the police’s struggle against crime,” he said.

Democratic MP Sergiu Sarbu said the objections to this bill will be thoroughly discussed within the parliamentary commissions and in the legislative body so as to improve the draft law. “The objections about the protection of the basic human rights should be taken into consideration before finalizing this bill. We should ignore the financial interests of particular persons,” he stated.

Lawyer of the International Center for Protection and Promotion of Women’s Rights “La Strada” Natalia Bayram said that they support this bill as it will ensure the efficient protection of children against any form of abuse and sexual exploitation. “This draft law brings the amendments needed to ensure efficient investigation,” she noted.

According to the representative of the concern “StarNet” Alexei Muntean, the bill is formulated ambiguously and some of its provisions can be interpreted. “We know that we have captive justice and we should not hope that the legal system will be fair and will analyze things somehow. In this case, the operators are those that will support the whole financial burden. Why do you oblige us to store tens of terabits for each user daily? Enormous investments must be made for the purpose,” said Alexei Muntean.

The Agency published 8 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 04.04.16, „ Bill on information security should be amended before it is passed, IPN debate” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/75771; on 05.04.16, “Nadine Gogu: Law on information technology should allow ‘no doors ajar” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/75772; “Natalia Bayram: Civil society’s concerns about Internet regulation are groundless” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/75773; „ Iulian Rusu: Regulation of the Internet is a seldom phenomenon in Western Europe” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/75774; „ Sergiu Sarbu: Bill on information security will be minutely examined in Parliament” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/75775; “Alexei Muntean: In Moldova it is easy to close a website” - http://www.ipn.md/en/economie-business/75781; “Sergiu Turcan: Moldova lags behind in ensuring online child protection” - http://www.ipn.md/en/societate/75783; “Veaceslav Badarau: Webpages will be blocked only within criminal cases” - http://www.ipn.md/en/societate/75784.    

Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN