By Elias Meseret, DireTube Correspondent
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (DireTube News)
- Ethiopian lawmakers have passed the controversial Computer Crime Proclamation
on Tuesday. The law has been regarded as another attempt by the Ethiopian
government to silence dissents and prosecute opposition groups and bloggers and
online activist are saying that the new law will restrict freedom of
expression.
Ethiopia’s cyber security officials
have reported in the past that the country is subject to more than 1,000 cyber
attacker per day. They said the new law will enable them to prosecute
cyber-crimes in an efficient manner.
But rights groups have accused
Ethiopia itself of using spyware to attack dissidents living in the West and to
dismantle opposition media outlets operating from the U.S. And an Ethiopian
court charged an opposition activist in May for his Facebook posts.
The new law subscribes a 3 years’
imprisonment for distributing defamatory speech, picture or text through a
computer. Activists say this is put to mainly silence dissenting opinion
against the gov’t. It also has a 10 years sentence for disseminating
pornographic videos, photos and posters via a computer. The weirdest of all is
the law puts from 3 to 5 year imprisonment for people who distribute mass
emails (spams) to advertise products or services.
DireTube News
No comments:
Post a Comment