The police in Sarajevo propose legal solutions to fight against hatred and the spread of fake news on the Internet. But the text of the proposal leaves room for abuses and narrowing of freedom of speech.
Activists Nejra Latic Hulusic and Aida Feraget want to see punishments for people who have been threatening them on the Internet for years. While looking at some of the threats on her phone, Nejra says that it was psychologically difficult to bear when she received 40 messages of threats such as rape or murder at one time.
During the coronavirus pandemic, she and other activists received threats when they organized protests calling on the authorities to procure vaccines.
Based on experience from the pandemic and due to the numberof threats and hatred on the Internet, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Canton Sarajevo (CS), Admir Katica, now proposes that the police investigate and punish these phenomena on the Internet.
The draft law on misdemeanors in CS provides, for the first time, punishments for violence on the Internet. The authorities want to declare the Internet a public place, that is, a space so that everything that is punishable in reality is also punishable online.
Space for abuse or protection against attacks
“Like in the Republika Srpska (RS), the definitions are broadly set and so imprecise that they will obviously lead to abuse,” says Lawyer Aleksandar Jokic, who analyzed the proposals in Sarajevo.
The draft envisages two main novelties related to the Internet – punishing threats or hatred and punishing the spread of fake news.
The draft law has already been publicly criticized by numerous non-governmental organizations, journalists, and activists for the protection of human rights who called on the authorities to abandon the proposal to control fake news, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
