Scrap interception clause in ‘Spy bill’, urges Lister

THE chapter of the controversial Communications Bill that deals with the interception of telecommunications like phone calls, e-mail, electronic banking and Internet usage should be totally scrapped because it opens the door to abuse, the Editor of The Namibian newspaper, Gwen Lister, urged at a public hearing yesterday.

‘Any interception, invasion of privacy as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights in Chapter Three of the Namibian Constitution, should only be allowed in the most exceptional case like possible terrorist activities, money-laundering and financial cyber-crime,’ Lister told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence and Security of the National Council.’The Bill has to ensure that arbitrary interception can be avoided – abuse (of interception) cannot be passed into law,’ she argued.The Communications Bill, in its current form, does not spell out in detail when communications will be intercepted, she added. ‘Is interception happening now and since 1990? In July this year Deputy Justice Minister Utoni Nujoma replied to a question from the opposition in Parliament that not a single interception warrant was issued to the Namibia Central Intelligence Service (NCIS) from January 2008 to the end of may 2009. Whether this means there was no interception – and if there was, therefore, illegal interception is up to Government to answer.’The conference room fell silent and all attention was drawn to the petite editor as she suddenly held up a copy of a mail interception order issued against her by the South African apartheid government in December 1984. ‘Many of us old enough to remember came from the draconian apartheid era where our rights were trampled underfoot and we fought against that erosion of rights and more specifically for a free society,’ she said.Lister told the committee that in December 1984 she quickly wanted to fetch her mail, but found the mailbox totally full and – since she had to rush off somewhere else – decided to pick it up a bit later.’To my surprise half an hour later, when I returned, my mailbox was empty. I reported the matter to the Postmaster. Some days later I checked my mailbox again and found a big envelope in it addressed to the Postmaster. Inside was my mail and another envelope with ‘Top Secret’ stamped all over it. In that very envelope was an interception order signed by Lieutenant General Zietsman of the (apartheid) security police in Pretoria, South Africa.’Lister quoted from the order which allowed six months of interception of her mail from December 3 1984 to June 2 1985.The reason given was that she allegedly was in ‘regular contact with prominent Swapo leaders, who wanted to overthrow the dispensation in the country to replace it with a Marxist government’, and that she allegedly was furthering the aims and objectives of Swapo.When she shared this with other reporters and a local newspaper carried a news story on the interception order, Lister continued, she was arrested and kept in detention for two weeks for allegedly having put ‘secret information’ into the public domain.’Eventually they had to drop the charges,’ Lister told the Committee.’What happened then can happen tomorrow, and thus the entire Chapter on interception in the Communications Bill should be scrapped.’Lister added that Clause 70 of the Bill states that ‘the President must establish’ interception centres and the wording should rather be changed to ‘may establish’.She asked for more detail on Clause 73(1), which stipulates that telecommunications service providers must obtain ‘prescribed information’ from all customers. ‘What information is needed? That should be defined clearly,’ Lister said.’The Bill is riddled with problems,’ she concluded.Sackey Shangala, a special advisor to the Justice Ministry, also appeared before the committee and said that the Information Ministry did not take much advice from the Justice Ministry when the Bill was drafted.’The Bill was only delivered to us a month ago and after the outcry in the media [about the interception clause], the Information Ministry turned to us for help,’ Shangala said frankly.The hearing will continue today. Sessions are open to the public.brigitte@namibian.com.na