Hi Ish,
I read the blog article at
http://hacklog.in/internet-filtering-in-mauritius/
about "Internet filtering in Mauritius". I also
read the letter (
http://hacklog.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ICTA_reply-Internet-filtering-Mauritius.pdf
) which is available for public consultation.
"Maybe this docile nature of Mauritius Internet Users have over the past
years given the impression that just anything
& everything will be accepted."
I participate in the discussions of the Mauritius Internet Users.
The section of the law being invoked is:
"The Authority shall -"
"take steps to regulate or curtail the harmful and illegal content on the
Internet and other information and communication services;"
The letter states that the project to do the
above was "preceded by a series of discussions
and dialogues with various stakeholders namely
the Data Protection Office, Ombudsperson for
Children, Internet Service Providers, the Police,
the media and representatives of consumer
organisations". During a meeting, a
representative of the ICTA pointed out that the
Consumer Protection Agency can represent
consumers in Mauritius. I pointed out that a
government agency would not put the interests of
consumers before the interests of the
government. A "series of discussions and
dialogues" is not a public consultation.
According to APEC-OECD, "Regulations should be
developed in an open and transparent fashion,
with appropriate and well-publicised procedures
for effective and timely inputs from interested
national and foreign parties, such as affected
business, trade unions, wider interest groups
such as consumer or environmental organisations,
or other levels of government. Public
consultation should not be limited to insiders,
such as already established businesses, but
should be open to all interested parties". Was
this project to regulate or curtail illegal
content on the internet undertaken in an open and
transparent fashion? Based on the contents of the letter I do not think so.
The press release attached to the letter
announces that "the ICT Authority will be
launching a centralised Online Content Filtering
solution" and that the Minister of Information
and Communication Technology will officially
launch the solution. That sounds like the
"National Internet Filtering System".
I do not understand the "campaign of gratuitous
false allegations against the Authority" in the
last paragraph of the letter. There were three
internet users in Mauritius who wrote to Dr. M K
Oolun about the "National Internet Filtering
System". I wrote to the Information and
Communication Technologies Authority as
perversive monitoring is a concern. I did some
research before asking the Authority about
whether there has been a public
consultation. Should I be docile and not ask any
questions when I have a concern? How can I find
out whether there is a "National Internet
Filtering System" if I cannot ask the Authority questions about that?
The press article which your blog article refers to has the following:
"It has been reported to the Icta that the
above mentionned website is currently
hosting contents of diffamatory nature."
The press article also states that the ICTA
intervened twice before to block web sites
because "le contenu avait été remplacé par des
images pornographiques". Wouldn't it be better
for the government and the Mahatma Gandhi
Institute to stop their web server instead of it
blocking access to the web sites? How were those
web sites blocked if there wasn't any internet
filtering system in Mauritius before 7 February 2011?
Regards,
S. Moonesamy
Received on Sat May 16 2015 - 16:06:34 PST