Lawmakers in St. Vincent and
the Grenadines should amend or scrap a draft cybercrime law that would allow
for prison sentences of up to two years for defamation, the Committee to
Protect Journalists said today. Legislators are expected to consider the draft
on Thursday, an opposition politician told CPJ.
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Vincentian
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, pictured on a 2009
visit
to Trinidad, has defended criminal defamation laws as
preserving
"peace and tranquility." (AP/Andres Leighton)
|
The most recent draft of the
law provides for prison sentences of up to two years for "a person who
uses a computer system to unlawfully publish any defamatory matter concerning
another person, whether negligently or with intent to defame that other
person," Anesia Baptiste, an opposition politician who participated in the
committee that reviewed the bill, told CPJ. The Penal Code of St. Vincent and
the Grenadines already includes penalties of up to two years in prison for
defamation, which applies to print, writing, and broadcast media.
"We urge legislators in
St. Vincent and the Grenadines to reject the draft law on cybercrime in its
current form and to immediately strike existing criminal defamation laws from
the Penal Code," said Carlos Lauría, senior program coordinator for the
Americas. "Criminal libel laws violate international standards for free
expression and could have a chilling effect on the free flow of
information."
Baptiste said she feared the
draft law could revive criminal defamation prosecutions in the Caribbean
country. "Criminal defamation laws remain in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, but they have fallen into disuse," she told CPJ. 'We worry
that the cybercrime bill could revive them."
The bill also defines
"cyber-harassment" as using a computer system to send another person
any "information, statement, or image that is obscene, constitutes a
threat, or is menacing in nature," and causes another person to feel
intimidated or harassed. It can be punished by up to a year in prison. A
similar provision on "cyberbullying" establishes a punishment of five
years in prison for the repeated distribution of material that causes another
person to feel intimidated or distressed and that harms their health or
reputation.
Baptiste said she is worried
that broad and vague language in these provisions could threaten freedom of
expression.
Baptiste is the leader of
the Democratic Republican Party, which is not represented in the St. Vincent
and the Grenadines's legislature. She was invited to sit on the committee along
with select other public officials and members of civil society, in part to
fill the gap created by opposition legislators' boycott of legislative sessions since the
hotly contested general elections of December 2015.
Vincentian Prime Minister
Ralph Gonsalves said the bill went through an extended period of drafting and
was still under review. Responding on July 29 to a letter by Reporters Without Borders,
Gonsalves argued in favor of the provisions for
criminal defamation, saying that the laws ease "peace, tranquility, and
nonviolent responses by victims of defamation."
A representative at the
prime minister's office told CPJ that the prime minister was unavailable for an
interview on August 5.
CPJ has campaigned to
eliminate criminal defamation laws in Latin America and the Caribbean for over
a decade. These efforts have helped shape an emerging international consensus,
including within the Inter-American system, that criminal defamation violates
international freedom of expression standards.
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