Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 11:39:48 -0400 From: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor) Subject: South African government wants draconian Internet censorship law To: freematt@coil.com (Matthew Gaylor)
From: Winston Smith <winstonsmith@mighty.co.za> Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2001 12:46 PM Subject: South African government wants draconian Internet censorship law
South African government wants draconian Internet censorship law (from the South African anticensorship site: http://www.censorbugbar.com)
JULY 22, 2001 -- A most serious matter has come to the attention of the many members of the anti-South African censorship site:
-- namely the truly draconian censorship law quietly being introduced by the South African regime -- and which will severely censor, curtail, eavesdrop on, monitor, intercept and in fact completely regulate all the country's Internet and postal communications dealing with South Africa and the rest of the world.
Moreover, South African citizens have only been given three weeks to object to this proposed Bill by August 13 -- the bill had been quietly introduced into the majority-Parliament last Friday and thus far, no such Bills have ever been rejected if they were sponsored by the ruling African National Congress party.
If South African citizens still value their own Constitutional rights to freedom of speech, and value their current free access to all the Internet information they need -- -- they must object to the SA regime -- in thirty copie -- before 13 August 2001. That's all the time this regime has allowed to register your formal objections to this proposed infringement upon your freedom of speech! They may not even hold public hearings about this!
OBJECT TO THIS PENDING DRACONIAN INTERNET CENSORSHIP LAW NOW!
The parliamentary bill (details on link: http://www.polity.org.za/govdocs/pr/2001/pr0718c.html) named the Interception and Monitoring Bill, has already been quietly introduced to parliament, and referred to the regime's justice and constitutional development committee "for consideration".
This Bill will allow the regime to stop, monitor, censor, intercept and regulate all Internet and postal communications between South Africa and the rest of the world. These draconian measures are identical to those recently taken by the People's Republic of China.
South African citizens aren't given much time to object, either -- anyone wishing to write objections or speak up against this proposed Internet censorship Bill, must do so now as the government has only allowed citizens to object no later than 13 August 2001 -- and please do send THIRTY copies of each objection in writing...
Everyone who values their freedom of speech and freedom of access to all information, including all the Censorbugbear members, their friends and relatives are therefore urgently urged to immediately object to this very serious attempt to infringe upon the South African citizen's constitutional rights to free access of all information, including on the Internet!
The committee may not even hold any public hearings about this if South African's don't object to this gross infringement upon their constitutional rights.
All correspondence including requests for copies of the bill, must be sent in 30 copies, and marked to the attention of Ms Collette Herzenberg (email: cherzenberg@parliament.gov.za) or Ms Zodwa Zenzile, (email: izenzile@parliament.gov.za; fax 021-462-2142); with the written objections IN THIRTY COPIES formally addressed to these people c/o The Secretary to Parliament; PO Box 15; Cape Town; 8000
Also, send your objections to this proposed South African law to the Global Internet Liberty Campaign: gilc@gilc.org; link: http://www.gilc.org/
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