By SIMON MUNTEMBA
IT is extremely wishful thinking for UPND president Hakainde Hichilema to promise that he will reverse the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes law once he gets into power because he will never form Government anytime soon, Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo has said.
Mr Kampyongo has meanwhile urged law enforcement agencies to pin down individuals behind the notorious faceless online media pages that were spewing hatred, insults and innuendoes against innocent citizens.
Last week, Mr Hichilema announced that he had set the repealing of Cyber Security and Cyber Crime law as his top priority once he wins the August 12 presidential election. But in an interview yesterday, Mr Kampyongo described Mr Hichilema’s hopes of reversing the Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes law as wishful thinking.
He said people who should be worried about the law were those who were behind the notorious platforms like Koswe and Watchdog that had been writing libelous articles and hate speech against innocent people.
“It is interesting that UPND whose members have invested heavily in these notorious propaganda social media platforms such as the Koswe and Watchdogs are the ones who are crying foul. They know that their days are numbered. “And it is extremely wishful thinking that they will come and repeal the law when they form government, a government they will not even form anytime soon,” Mr Kampyongo said.
He stressed that that the law was purely intended to protect citizens and not suppress their liberties.
Meanwhile, Mr Kampyongo said law enforcers should not wait for the establishment of the Cyber Security Authority and inspectors to implement the cyber security law.
He said law enforcement officers should straight away bring sanity to the cyber space now that the provision of the law gives them power to pin down culprits.
Mr Kampyongo said: “This enforcement is not only limited to the creation of the authority, the law can be enforced once published.”
He said the ministry would soon engage the Ministry of Transport and Communications which sponsored the bill to look at the implementation modalities.
