Hi Mercy,
If you read the proposed 84IA. on licensing, one can quickly see thatit
is unenforceable legally especially on the indefinite data retention
requirements under subsection 2(c).
Additionally the whole proposed licensing regime do not provide
sufficient details about the conditions for the granting of the license
or authorisation. In fact, it is not clear whether the issuing will
automatically follow the payment of the fee, or if further conditions
have to be met by applicants, and in this case which ones. In other
words, the vagueness of the rules might provide authorities with
unlimited discretionary power while deciding whether to grant the
license or authorisation. As such, the rules also fail to provide
content providers with the legal certainty they need to provide their
services. Nor do the rules provide for the possibility, for anyone who
has been refused a license or authorisation, to apply to the courts for
judicial review of the refusal decision.
I would also add from our Policy Brief on the Right to Blog which can be
found here:-
www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Right-to-Blog-EN-WEB.pdf
“….licensing and registration schemes for all bloggers, whatever they
do, are deeply inimical to protection of the right to freedom of
expression and in flagrant breach of international law…..there is no
legitimate reason why bloggers – or in fact members of the general
public – should be subject to mandatory licensing to express themselves.
An important source of legal authority on the subject is an opinion of
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights issued in 1985. Most tellingly,
the Court dismissed the argument that licensing schemes were necessary
to ensure the public’s right to receive truthful information or high
standards of publication and found that such systems ultimately prove
counterproductive.
Similarly, the UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly held that
mandatory licensing schemes for print media constitute a violation of
the right to freedom of expression. The UN, OAS and OSCE special
mandates for freedom of expression have also stated that individuals
should not be required to obtain a licence or register….”
