As a follow up to the latest anti-terror plan of action (49 proposals) of November 2005, the Danish government is now proposing new anti-terror legislation.

In the current round of public hearing, massive criticism has been raised by NGOs, legal experts, Danish industry, telecom providers, and from a number of political parties, including the Liberal Party, which is one of the ruling parties in the current government. The criticism concerns both the substance in the proposals and the process of their preparation.

The proposals presented by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Science & Technology are quite far reaching and encompass a range of intrusions into citizens' privacy.

Among the most debated proposals are: - An access for the police intelligence services (PET) to request information about a citizen from any public authority as long as the information "might serve a purpose" in relation to an investigation, i.e. without a request for the police to justify the request. Furthermore there is increased access for the intelligence services to exchange this information with the defence intelligence services (FET). - A request for telecom and Internet Service Providers to provide the police with information on a given cell phone location at a given point in time (so called tele observation). - An obligation for telecom and Internet Service Providers to implement technical measures to enable the authorities to wiretap any given communication at short notice. - An obligation for telecom and Internet Service Providers to implement technical measures to provide unspecified historical data about a citizen (data retention), though the specific data to be retained in Denmark are still unresolved and have been so since the adoption of the first anti-terror law in June 2002. - An access to the police to request that public authorities or private companies put in place CCTV surveillance of public spaces. Furthermore, access to the police to specify technical requirements for the surveillance records. - A request for airline companies to retain passenger and airline staff data for one year, and to hand these over to the police intelligence services upon request.

A heated public hearing was held on 28 March at the Danish Human Rights Institute and a new round of debate will take place in the Parliamentary judicial committee on 31 March. The coming weeks will show whether the government will stick to the original proposals or whether some of the more controversial part will be modified.

Revolt threatens anti-terror bill (28.03.2006)
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/94770.html

Responses from Digital Rights (in Danish)
http://www.digitalrights.dk

Responses from the Danish Human Rights Institute (in Danish)
http://www.humanrights.dk/hoeringssvar/notat2006/

Government wants to strengthen the fight against terror (in Danish)
http://www.jm.dk/wimpdoc.asp?page=document&objno=74912

Ministry of Justice draft bill (in Danish)
http://hoeringsportalen.dk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/HOERINGSPORTAL/JUSTITS...

Ministry of Science & Technology draft bill (in Danish)
http://www.videnskabsministeriet.dk/cgi-bin/left-lovstof-list.cgi?law_...

Government Action Plan on anti-terrorism (in Danish)
http://www.stm.dk/publikationer/terrorpakke/index.htm

EDRI-gram : New anti-terrorism measures in Denmark (5.12.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.24/Danish_antiterror

(Contribution by Rikke Frank Jørgensen, EDRI-member Digital Rights Denmark)