{"id":474880,"date":"2022-01-18T17:19:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T17:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpj.org\/?p=159734"},"modified":"2022-01-18T17:19:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T17:19:08","slug":"why-the-uns-push-for-a-cybercrime-treaty-could-imperil-journalists-simply-for-using-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/18\/why-the-uns-push-for-a-cybercrime-treaty-could-imperil-journalists-simply-for-using-the-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the UN\u2019s push for a cybercrime treaty could imperil journalists simply for using the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cybercrime is on the global agenda as a United Nations committee<\/a> appointed to develop a treaty on the topic meets for the first time this week. The process is slated to take at least two years, but experts warn that such a treaty \u2013 initially proposed by Russia<\/a> \u2013 could hand new tools to authorities looking to punish those who report the news.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue stems from competing definitions of cybercrime, one narrowed on malicious hacking of networks and data, the other encompassing any crime facilitated by a computer. It matters because many authorities around the world already invoke cybercrime or cybersecurity laws to punish journalists \u2013 not for secretly hacking into networks or systems, but for openly using their own to publicize wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s ambiguity, some governments will take advantage of that and try to use it to clamp down on speech,\u201d Deborah Brown, senior researcher for digital rights at Human Rights Watch, told CPJ. Brown has written about a global surge in national cybercrime laws<\/a> undermining human rights. \u201cIt\u2019s important to look not just at what\u2019s being proposed at the global level, but at how national governments are interpreting their own laws,\u201d she told CPJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybercrime laws criminalize topics like false news in Nicaragua<\/a>, Nigeria<\/a>, and Sudan<\/a>, among other countries. Journalists have been arrested on cybercrime charges in Iran<\/a> for reporting on the economy; in Pakistan<\/a> for investigative and political commentary; and in Benin<\/a>, for alleged defamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, CPJ warned<\/a> about Russia\u2019s push, along with China and a handful of other U.N. member states, to propose an \u201cinformation security\u201d code to combat online information that could incite terrorism or undermine national stability, charges both countries have levied against journalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis has been part of Russia\u2019s agenda for a while, and China has also been pushing for a treaty that would achieve similar goals \u2013 simply to extend more state control over the internet,\u201d said Sheetal Kumar, head of global engagement and advocacy at Global Partners Digital, a London-based organization advocating digital rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPJ emailed the Russian and Chinese permanent missions to the U.N. in New York to request comment but received no response.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cybercrime measures can affect the press even if they don\u2019t explicitly criminalize speech. According to Kumar, some seek to undermine encryption, a privacy feature that helps journalists protect files and communicate privately<\/a> with sources and colleagues. CPJ has reported on journalists facing trumped-up hacking charges in retaliation for reporting, like Egypt\u2019s Nora Younis<\/a>. Journalists in the U.S. have told CPJ that the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act<\/a> criminalizes data-gathering and verification activities that ought to be considered a routine part of reporting the news. In one recent local U.S. case, Missouri governor Mike Parsons said on December 29 that he expected prosecutors to charge St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em> reporter Josh Renaud<\/a> under a state anti-hacking statute for publicizing a local government website vulnerability that had exposed teachers\u2019 Social Security numbers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But journalists could be even more vulnerable if a global convention entrenches a broader definition of computer-enabled cybercrime, according to Brown at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe [U.N.] treaty has the potential to criminalize certain behavior and content online,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJordan, Indonesia, Russia, China, and others want to see a much broader scope [for the treaty] with so-called morality crimes, disinformation \u2013 more content-based crimes,\u201d Kumar said, citing national statements<\/a> submitted ahead of the convention. CPJ has documented journalists imprisoned under both Jordan\u2019s Cybercrime Law<\/a> and Indonesia\u2019s Electronic Information and Transactions Law<\/a> in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many U.N. member states are calling for increased international cooperation in cybercrime investigations, which could see more information about alleged criminals shared across borders, according to Kumar.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s good is that a number of states have said they want a rights-respecting approach,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the devil is in the detail. You\u2019re asking for increased [law enforcement] powers, you\u2019re also saying human rights need to be protected. That\u2019s where the issues will lie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Three journalists accused under cybercrime laws:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Maria
Rappler <\/em>editor Maria Ressa faces charges in the Philippines. (Reuters\/Eloisa Lopez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
  1. Filipino journalist Maria Ressa<\/a>, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October, is battling a spate of spurious libel charges<\/a> under the Philippines\u2019 2012 Cybercrime Prevention Act in connection with reporting by her news website, Rappler<\/em>, and could face a six-year prison sentence if one conviction from 2020<\/a> is not overturned on appeal.<\/li>
  2. Bangladeshi reporter Ruhul Amin Gazi<\/a> has been jailed for over a year without trial because a 2019 report about an executed opposition leader published by his employer, <\/em>the Bangla-language Daily Sangram <\/em>newspaper, was available on the internet, triggering a criminal complaint under the Digital Security Act, <\/em>Rezaur Rahman Lenin, an independent academic and activist based in Dhaka who has followed the case, told CPJ. Local courts deny bail to those charged under the law so often that the prosecution itself is a punishment, Lenin said.<\/em> <\/li>
  3. Nigeria\u2019s Cybercrimes Act criminalizes using computers to transmit information that could cause annoyance or that the sender knows to be false; Luka Binniyat<\/a>, a Nigerian journalist who contributes to the U.S.-based outlet The Epoch Times<\/em>, was arrested under the Cybercrimes Act in November 2021 and continues to be held in advance of a February 3 court hearing<\/a>.<\/li><\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n


    \r\nThis content originally appeared on     Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> and was authored by Madeline Earp\/CPJ Consultant Technology Editor.
    <\/p>\n

    This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Cybercrime is on the global agenda as a United Nations committee appointed to develop a treaty on the topic meets for the first time this week. The process is slated to take at least two years, but experts warn that such a treaty \u2013 initially proposed by Russia \u2013 could hand new tools to authorities…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22127,1733,3314,24540,40958,25077,38423,21278,40959,40960,27150,111],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5350"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":474881,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474880\/revisions\/474881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}