The
Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, made a perfect hit last week when it
chose the platform of the Social Media Week which held in Lagos from February
22-26, 2016, to draw the attention of netizens to the Cybercrime Act which was
signed into law in May 2015.
Addressing a very youthful population who mostly
live their life in the cyber ecosystem, the Executive Vice Chairman of the
Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta charged them to
acquaint themselves with the contents of the Act in order to be properly guided
in their cyber operations.
Speaking
through Mr Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, at the main stage event,
Danbatta observed that the Cybercrime Act has become law since May last year;
it was therefore imperative for New Media practitioners to familiarise
themselves with the contents of the law as it affects their practice.
Pointing
to various sections of the Act, he explained that the Act does not encumber
freedom of expression as erroneously believed but instead it seeks to protect
those whose freedom may be damaged by the freedom freely expressed by others.
For
instance, Section 24 of the Act, Danbatta pointed out, deals with Cyber
stalking and prescribes punishment for "Any person who knowingly or
intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer system or
network " which, among others, "he knows to be false, for the purpose
of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury,
criminal intimidation , enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another
or cause such message to be sent: Commits an offence under this Act and shall
be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000, 000. 00 or
imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment."
In
addition to Danbatta's paper, the Commission raised a team of technocrats and
industry practitioners to help bring more understanding to the document which
everybody agreed is still very fresh in the public domain. In fact a blogger
who was one of the first victims of the Act and spent some weeks in Ikoyi
prisons while waiting to perfect his
bail, threw the gathering into some bout of laugher when he informed that his
lawyers were arguing over the existence of the Act even as he was being shepherded to his
temporary home. The discussants include: Messrs. Nnamdi Nwokike, Director,
Corporate Planning and Strategy, NCC; Taiwo Obe, Founder and Director,
Journalism Clinic; Mideno Bayagbon, Editor, Vanguard Newspapers; Basorun
Adetunji, New Media and Information Security, NCC; Folorunso Mesele,
Information Technology, NCC; and Mrs. Afure Iloka, Legal and Regulatory, NCC.
In
his intervention, Danbatta who acknowledged the contribution of the media to
the growth of the telecommunication industry, and also in bringing the sector
to global attention, pledged that under his watch the NCC would be happy to
associate with anything that can add value to the practice of journalism,
especially in the area of capacity building, and thus help to prevent unpleasant
consequences arising from needless infractions.
The
panel which shared some of the sentiments expressed in Danbatta's interventions
also agreed on the following: although there is press freedom, such freedom
must be exercised with responsibility; the things we do in the practice of our
profession can hurt others very badly and cause them so much distress in life;
media practitioners should desist from racist and xenophobic offences which
include tribal and religious profiling; there is the need to be informed that
computer has gone beyond that mainframe in that office, the desktop or the
laptop which can send messages, to include the small handheld devices that are
quite pervasive nowadays; the Act deals copiously with child pornography and is
quite explicit on the fact that you do not need to be the originator of content
before committing an infraction; there is the need to study the Act to know
what constitutes financial crimes in electronic transactions.
Although
the NCC could enjoy some satisfaction and a sense of fulfilment from the
confessions of some of the key participants that they had never heard or seen the
Act before the NCC Session at the Social Media Week, there were quite a few
people like Omoyole Sowore of Sahara Reporters and Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm
Initiative Nigeria who were unhappy with
the content as it could affect new media practice, while some saw it as the
handwork of some politicians who do not want their corrupt lifestyle to be
reported.
However,
Prof Danbatta hailed the quality of discourse and noted that the Commission has
achieved a major aim of initiating dialogue on a vital document that could have
far reaching effects on social relationships, businesses and modern lifestyle.
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