Government Postpones Examination of Draft Law on Internet Control

The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman Liliana Vitu said for Unimedia.md that Iurie Leanca ordered the draft law on Internet freedom to be removed from the agenda of the Government meeting for tomorrow. According to Unimedia.md, the document will return to the Government after it is discussed with the civil society.

Unimedia.md had previously published the news about inclusion of some legislative modifications concerning the freedom of expression in the Internet into the draft agenda of the Government meeting for Wednesday.

The draft law proposed by the General Prosecutor’s Office had not been discussed with the civil society, and the news portals Unimedia.md and Privesc.eu addressed a public appeal to ministers, asking for its withdrawal and claiming that this issue concerns the activity of Internet providers and bears the risk of censuring the Internet and, respectively, limiting the freedom of expression.

The Prime Minister’s spokeswoman Liliana Vitu announced that Prime Minister Leanca ordered for this draft law to be removed from the agenda of the Wednesday meeting of the Cabinet. The draft will return to the Government after consultations with the civil society, added Vitu.

Entrepreneurs in the field of information technology are displeased by the obligation of Internet service providers to preserve traffic, offer data about network users, and decipher the information contained in the packages of network protocols, says the article on Unimedia.md. In addition, according to the authors of the article, website blocking, which shall be performed according to a list compiled and updated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, might establish censorship in the Internet.

In his turn, being contacted by Media-azi.md, the president of the National Participation Council Sergiu Ostaf said that he had a number of objections regarding this topic and that he would share them at tomorrow’s press-conference.

The legislative initiative on control over cyberspace was submitted to the Government by the General Prosecutor’s Office. According to the latter, the draft law aims to combat cybercrime.

Photo Source: Gov.md