Government regulation of blogs, MXiT not a solution – FXI, MMP

“Firstly, the call reflects an ignorance of how such technologies operate. How exactly does De Lille expect such regulation to take place?” Jeenah asked.

“More importantly, despite her denials that this is the case, De Lille's call certainly smacks of censorship and an attempt to deny free expression rights that are guaranteed in the South African Constitution.”

De Lille told her party's website that she has been horrified to hear daily stories from people whose marriages have been destroyed and about children who are led into situations where they are molested by grown men, who use MXiT to lure girls and boys into their traps.

“This has gone too far and it is time for Government to intervene to protect our most vulnerable. The right to freedom of expression is not absolute,” de Lille added.

“Not the solution”

But FXI's Jeenah is outraged by de Lille's statement, saying: “While concerns about child predators are real, the solution is not to regulate all forms of communication where such child predators might exploit.

“This would mean regulating all chat programmes on the Internet, cellphones and virtually all other communication technologies. This would really be a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) also echoes FXI's sentiments. “Encouraging government regulation of these things is not only a threat to media freedom, but also almost impossible to regulate,” Sandra Roberts, MMP project coordinator told Bizcommunity.com.

“What is necessary is something that is more in line with self-regulation as well as a naming and shaming process.”

Important form of democratisation

Furthermore, despite the public's outcry that bloggers and MXiT have been ‘ruining' innocent people's lives, Jeenah maintains that blogging is a very important form of democratisation of the media.

“Like all media, blogging can be used to express viewpoints that some or other people in society might not like. But that is what freedom of expression is all about: being able to accept that the right extends to people who will express viewpoints that might be unpopular.”

If South Africa indeed implements a legislation to regulate Internet practices or scrap blogging altogether, it will join the list of countries such as Oman, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Ethiopia that block Internet content deemed ‘socially unethical'.

This follows a recent survey carried out by experts from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Toronto which found that 26 out of 40 countries have been blocking or filtering political or social content.

“Online censorship growing”

“The survey shows us that online censorship is growing around the world,” Agence France Presse quoted John Palfrey, executive director of Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, as saying.

Palfrey is also a clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School.

“Some regulation is to be expected as the medium matures, filtering and surveillance can seriously erode civil liberties and privacy and stifle global communications,” Palfrey added in a statement.

For more information about the blogging self-censorship, call the MMP on +27 (0)11 788 1278.