Kyrgyzstan: Parliament passed the law on total Internet censorship

On June 25, the Kyrgyz Parliament voted for the scandalous bill “On the manipulation of information” initiated by MPs Gulshat Asylbaeva and Ainura Osmonova. The adopted document introduces Internet censorship in the republic.

 Contrary to the protests …

 The day before the vote on this bill, the Kyrgyz citizens organized an online protest on Facebook’s official page of one of the bill’s authors, Gulshat Asylbaeva. Under the text published by the deputy, in which she talked about the struggle of democracy with false news, users wrote more than 4 thousand comments.

Directly on voting day, a protest rally was held in Bishkek, the participants of which gathered near the Parliament building in the hope of influencing the voting process with posters “I don’t need permission to speak”, “Hands off freedom of speech!”.

Despite the indignation of the public, the expert and the media community, with another attempt to restrict freedom of speech in the Kyrgyz Republic, the Kyrgyz deputies nevertheless adopted the draft law “On the manipulation of information” in the second and third reading. 79 deputies voted “for”, and only 10 deputies voted “against”.

Moreover, according to those present at the parliamentary meeting, at the time of the vote, there were only 30 deputies in the hall. 10 of them voted against. The remaining 20, apparently, pressed buttons for their colleagues.

This, by the way, was the reason for the representatives of the media and civil activists to appeal to the State Committee for National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic with a request to start pre-trial proceedings against deputies who voted for the adoption of the scandalous law.

The activists believe that the deputies should be held accountable under article 320 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic for abuse of power. According to this article, use by a responsible official of his/her official position contrary to the interests of the service, which has intentionally or through negligence caused significant harm, shall be punishable by imprisonment with deprivation of the right to occupy certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years.

“According to part 2 of article 9 of the law on the status of deputy, a parliamentarian is required to conscientiously fulfill the powers defined by the legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Law on the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament establishes that the deputy personally exercises his/her right to vote (part 3 of article 84) and imperatively prohibits transferring the right to vote to another deputy (part 4 of article 85). Therefore, when adopting laws, deputies must strictly observe the principle of personal participation in voting,” the statement said.

The activists emphasize that laws, which are passed by the Parliament, are the most important form of expression of the will of the people. Therefore, they must be adopted in a strictly prescribed manner by law. Any deviations and violations of established procedures cast doubt on the legitimacy of the law.

… and a barrage of criticism

The bill was actively criticized by human rights activists and media experts at the stage of public discussion. So the lawyers of the legal clinic “Adilet” [“Justice”] prepared a detailed analysis of the document and recommended that the deputy of the Parliament Gulshat Asylbaeva recall it due to a large number of shortcomings.

The LC “Adilet” noted that the law establishes the obligation for owners of sites and (or) pages on the Internet to prevent the spread of false or inaccurate information, but doesn’t contain a definition of the terms “site owner” and “page owner”, which, according to lawyers, is a fairly critical gap.

Lawyers also found it unnecessary to not disseminate false or inaccurate information. Since it is present in national legislation, and if information is discredited regarding an individual or legal entity that defames his/her honor and dignity, he/she has the right to apply to the court.

“If someone has published information aimed at inciting racial, ethnic, national, religious or inter-regional strife, then law enforcement agencies are required to institute criminal proceedings on the grounds provided for in article 313 of the Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic. The statistics of the number of lawsuits for the protection of honor and dignity, as well as the number of cases brought under this article, indicate that these mechanisms are used quite often,” the LC “Adilet” says in its conclusion.

An Internet user may not always know whether this information is reliable. In the end, the organization’s lawyers noted, this requirement would lead to self-censorship, when Internet users would be afraid to write their opinions or thoughts, out of fear that they would be held accountable.

The experts were outraged by the requirement that “the owner of the site and (or) the site’s page on the Internet is obliged to write the surname and initials, and his/her email address for sending legally significant messages to him/her.”

“The right to anonymity on the Internet is the right of every citizen, it is up to him/her to decide whether he/she will write on his/her own behalf or not. In addition, all major social networks have built-in mechanisms that allow you to block a user by filing a complaint against a published post if it calls to violate the law and generally accepted rules of behavior in society. In democratic countries, this right is recognized and protected,” the lawyers emphasized.

Lawyers recalled that law enforcement and national security agencies have all the necessary powers and technical means to search and identify persons who violate the law.

In addition, according to lawyers, this requirement is absurd from a technical point of view too. If this law is adopted, the whole state body will have to check all sites and pages of users of social networks, whether they have indicated their surname and initials or not. Considering that there are millions of users and owners of the pages, and many sites are not registered in Kyrgyzstan, this is obviously an impossible requirement, which will ultimately lead to the selective application of these requirements.

Analysts remind that there is no such body with such authority in the country that could decide whether this or that information is false or not.

To determine this is only in the competence of the court. Granting broad powers without an appropriate regulatory framework can lead to abuse of power and the use of this mechanism to introduce total censorship in the Internet space.

As Factcheck.kg found out, the text of the document, which was developed by Asylbaeva and Osmonova, coincides with another bill “On informatization and electronic control”, which was submitted for public discussion in 2017, as well as the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On information, information technology and information security”.

People are waiting for the reaction of the President

The law, which was adopted by the Parliament, enters into force after the signing of the document by the President. He may reject it and return with objections.

The statement has already appeared on the website of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) stating that the President Sooronbai Jeenbekov should reject the recently proposed bill, which will be a serious step towards restricting freedom of the press in the country.

“The uncertain nature of the law on manipulation of information proposed by Kyrgyzstan undoubtedly creates an atmosphere of uncertainty for journalists and promotes self-censorship. The President Sooronbai Jeenbekov must reject the law if he doesn’t intend to participate in the repressions that we are already witnessing among Kyrgyzstan’s neighbors in Central Asia,” said Gulnosa Said, CPJ Program Coordinator for Europe and Central Asia.

In the Kyrgyz human rights community, the Parliament’s adoption of the bill “On manipulation of information” is called evidence of “open political corruption”.

“This law will worsen the human rights situation in the Kyrgyz Republic. It was adopted just before the election, hastily, and with violation of the procedures. The deputies, in fact, allowed to close sites and accounts without trial. And this will happen. This is the worst law that makes worse the rights and freedoms of citizens. Journalists will be under scrutiny; self-censorship will appear. And this is during a pandemic, when people want to receive different information. I think we need to work on a strategy for the President of the Kyrgyz Republic to impose a veto. I support colleagues who want to achieve responsibility for the deputies who violated the voting procedure. In fact, today we have witnessed open political corruption at the Kyrgyz Parliament,” said Kyrgyz human rights activist Tolekan Ismailova in an interview with ACCA.

Bolot Temirov, the editor-in-chief of Factcheck.kg, also voiced his attitude to the bill.

“The main complaint against this bill is the creation of an authorized body that will make decisions on blocking. This body, without trial or investigation, without the right to appeal, will engage in blocking sites and web pages. At the same time, the term “Internet sites”, which are used in the bill, will obviously be interpreted broadly. That is, the authorized body can at any time be able to block any mass media of the republic until the moment they remove the material or receive a court decision. That is, the state will be able to limit access to information without any clear procedures, on the basis of its understanding of false information. This is a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of speech,” Temirov said in an interview with ACCA.