PM: Crime in cyberspace

PRIME Minister Dr Keith Rowley has dismissed claims that whistleblower and cybercrime legislation could criminalise the media. Rowley made these comments during an interview on i95.5 FM on Wednesday.

He said cyberspace is an area where “serious criminal conduct” can take place and explained that the country already experienced some of the dangers of cybercrime when Cambridge Analytica was allowed to operate under the former People’s Partnership government.

In April, Rowley said such an invasion of citizens’ privacy, where all of their personal interaction with the internet, some embarrassing, became raw material for the conduct of an election campaign.

He said the Parliament’s National Security Joint Select Committee (JSC) would conduct an inquiry into alleged interference in this country’s 2010 general election by Cambridge Analytica.

The Opposition has said it will not participate in this inquiry. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has hinted at the possibility of CA whistleblower Christopher Wylie appearing before a JSC.

Rowley reiterated that whistleblower legislation is designed to protect people who find out something that the public should know about. The Whistleblower Protection Bill 2018 and the Cybercrime Bill 2017 were laid in Parliament on April 9 and May 5, respectively.