Regional and international press freedom groups are continuing to raise concern about a bill pending before the House of Assembly that would impose strict penalties on anyone who unlawfully accesses and publishes confidential computer data.
The groups are concerned about the bill’s possible threat to free speech and the harshness of its proposed penalties: Anyone in the world who unlawfully accesses a Virgin Islands computer could be subject to as much as 40 years in prison and a $3 million fine — a penalty that surpasses the bill’s 10-year maximum sentence and $250,000 fine for possession of child pornography.
In spite of the criticism, however, government officials are standing by the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act, 2014, arguing that it is needed to safeguard sensitive financial services information and other data.
‘Chilling effect’
Last week the Vienna, Austria-based International Press Institute criticised the bill, arguing that it should be amended to allow an exception for publishing electronic data that is in the public interest.
Otherwise, the bill could have a “chilling effect on legitimate journalistic activity” and other forms of freedom of expression, the IPI stated.
The VI government stated its position on the bill in a press release issued Tuesday.
“The new act will assure relevant stakeholders — both domestic and international — that the integrity and safety of their personal and business data is protected as they continue to undertake legitimate business transactions,” the release stated. “As a well-regulated financial centre which plays a pivotal role in world trade and commerce, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrime Act [2014], once approved and enacted, will protect against illegal access and misuse of computers.”
Several international media outlets — including the South China Morning Post, Reuters and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — have reported on the pending bill, as have many regional and local news organisations.
The government press release referred to a “number of erroneous media articles” about the bill, but did not detail what information was erroneous or which organisations were publishing it.
Contacted for further information yesterday morning, Arliene Penn, government’s communications director, referred this reporter back to the press release and did not clarify further.
Bill’s effects
The bill, which received a first reading in the House of Assembly in January and was Gazetted earlier this month, would update the legal definitions for several computer-related crimes and dramatically strengthen penalties for copying, transferring, erasing or publishing illicitly obtained data.
Baseline penalties would range from $10,000 to $1 million in fines and prison terms of two to 20 years. The maximum fines can be tripled, and the sentences doubled, if the crime involves data taken from a “protected computer” and thus threatens the territory’s national security, school exam answers, financial services companies, infrastructure or emergency services, according to the bill.
According to the GIS release issued Tuesday, the bill was drafted “following the misappropriation and misuse of private and confidential information from the BVI in April 2013.”
That’s when the Washington, DC-based ICIJ began publishing its series “Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze.” The series relied on a “data leak” of 2.5 million files largely linked to two VI trust companies that were contained on a hard drive ICIJ Executive Director Gerald Ryle said he received in the mail.
According to GIS, the bill does not limit the constitutional protection on freedom of expression.
“In accordance with international standards, the BVI act does not criminalise legitimate free speech, but is designed to protect confidential data and information while preventing its misuse,” the release stated.
But the IPI took a different view.
“We are also concerned that the disproportionately harsh punishments foreseen by this bill, as well as a lack of specificity as to which information is protected, will contribute to a dangerous chilling effect on the media,” the group stated in its Feb. 12 release.
Wesley Gibbings, the general secretary of the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers, used similar language to describe what he sees as a dangerous trend: “a new wave of oppressive legislation in the Caribbean aimed almost exclusively at online media.”
“The issue at hand is the degree to which such penalties under such regulations generate a chilling effect on free expression and seek to forcibly impose regimes of prior censorship on the media,” he wrote in a message to the Beacon.
Mr. Gibbings added that Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and Trinidad and Tobago have also enacted or are considering similar laws that “essentially criminalise expression and have prison sentences and fines.”
Though media organisations may be most directly impacted by the bill, any users of social media sites and individuals who comment on online news articles could also be subject to the law’s penalties, he added.
The bill will likely be considered for a second and third reading at future HOA sittings, but it will need the assent of Governor Boyd McCleary to become law.
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