Freedom of expression and right to access information will be seriously curbed by the new Computer Crime Act, which was approved yesterday, according to legal and rights experts.
Yingcheep Atchanont of iLaw, a network of legal experts, said: “There will be wider and further limits on people’s freedom due to the enactment of amendments to the Computer Crime Act (BE 2550), especially with regard to information distribution on the Internet.”
Activists and those who disagree with the government’s policies, will be most affected as Article 14 of the law states that anyone who posts anything wrongfully will face up to five years in jail and/or a fine of up to Bt100,000.
Summing up , it is feared that the liberty of all people will be limited, as the websites which authorities think are harmful to national stability and the morality of people, will be shut down and people will have less freedom on the Internet.
Meanwhile, Thai Netizen Network leader Sarinee Achavanuntakul said the Act was very ambigious. “The law is very vague on what is right and what is wrong, so the Internet will be filled with fear as anyone could be arrested for what they do on the Internet.
“According to police, there are about 1,400 cases pending under the current version of the Computer Crime Act and no one knows if there will be many more cases. I would like to ask the NLA to clarify the law and get rid of the ambiguities to solve the problems.”
Amnesty International Thailand director Piyanuch Kosot said that as her organisation was one that campaigned against the new law, she wanted to thank the 360,000 people who signed the petition objecting to it, despite it ending in failure.
“We are very disappointed that the NLA approved this law. The Computer Crime Act should protect the people, but many amendments in this law allow for even greater human rights violation,” Piyanuch said. “Not only us, but 360,000 people and the world community are watching the NLA closely and we will keep monitoring enforcement of the law and changes to the law in the future.”
The controversial amendments to the law were passed yesterday by the NLA . In the final reading, legislators decided to increase the number of online content screening committee members from five to nine.
The Buriram Times would like to point out that the content of this article is not the official view of the newspaper.
(Source: The Nation, Thailand)