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Deutsch: Mazedonien: Zivilgesellschaft fordert Respekt vor Privatsphäre
On 11 June 2010, fifteen Macedonian civil society organizations reacted to the threats to privacy and democracy contained in the Draft Law amending the Law on Electronic Communications, calling for the withdrawal of the text from parliamentary procedure.
The call has been supported by more than 365 citizens so far, including prominent solicitors and other intellectuals, and was prepared based on expert analyses, taking into account the views of relevant stakeholders, especially NGOs dealing with human rights protection, expressed in public and at the round table "Privacy in Macedonia" held on 4 June 2010 in Skopje.
The reason for this reaction to the proposed amendments is that those amendments are creating legal opportunities for arbitrary and unlimited use of eavesdropping and other forms of interception of electronic communications that violate the basic postulates of the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia (Article 17 and 25) that guarantee the inviolability of all forms of communication and protection of privacy and dignity.
The proposed amendments contravene directly the European Convention on Human Rights and other international agreements ratified by the Macedonian Assembly and the new EU Directive 2009/136/EC, part of the Telecom Package. The amendments circumvent the norms established by the Law on Personal Data Protection, the Law on Interception of Communications and the Law on Criminal Procedure, and grant the Ministry of Interior with a "constant and direct access" to telecommunication networks' traffic data.
The initiative launched by the EDRi-member Metamorphosis Foundation, Transparency Macedonia, FOSIM and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights is supported by the Macedonian Centre for European Training, FORUM - CSID, Kontrapunkt, the Council for Global Cooperation, Reactor, YEF, Children's Theatre Centre, CA Common Values, the Centre for Media Development, Freedom Square, Free Software Macedonia and Civil.
The full text of the call is available on the website of the Metamorphosis Foundation, and was also submitted to all MPs in Parliament, the Prime Minister, the Minister for Transport and Communications, and to the Delegation of the EU to Macedonia along with relevant supporting documents.
Bardhyl Jashari, the director of the EDRi-member Metamorphosis Foundation says that the proposed law, apart from dangerously limiting citizens privacy and eroding a fundamental human right, was proposed in a non-transparent and non-inclusive manner, without involving relevant stakeholders.
Call for protection of citizens' privacy in the Republic of Macedonia
(8.06.2010)
http://metamorphosis.org.mk/activities/povik-za-zashtita-na-privatnost...
EDRi-gram: Macedonia: New Law on Electronic Communications Proposed
(19.05.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.10/macedonia-new-law-electronic-c...
(Contribution by EDRi-member Metamorphosis Foundation - Macedonia)