Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Philippines Supreme Court restrains government from enforcing new cyber law

IDG News Service - The Supreme Court in the Philippines has temporarily restrained the government from enforcing a new controversial cyber law, in response to petitions from civil rights and journalists groups in the country.

In a temporary restraining order (TRO), the court on Tuesday enjoined the government from implementing or enforcing the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which makes online libel a cybercrime with the prospect of being punished twice for one act, allows the authorities to take down a website alleged of violating the cyber law without judicial review, and also provides for collection of real-time traffic data without a warrant or judicial order, according to its critics.

By punishing libel as a cybercrime simply because it is committed through a computer system, the clear intent of the provision of the Act is to single out Internet users in their chosen medium of expression, according to one of the 15 petitions before the Supreme Court.

The court has ordered that the respondents including the office of the country's solicitor general comment on the case within 10 days. The oral arguments for the case have been set for Jan. 15.

The new Act, also known as the Republic Act No. 10175, was signed into law by the country's president Benigno S. Aquino III last month, and took effect from Oct. 3...

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