Review Cybercrime Act, ASF France Tells Nigeria

Country director of Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF) France, Ms Angela Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, has called for a review of Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act to protect the media and activists from harassment and intimidation.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, speaking at a two-day training for judges and lawyers from Imo State on digital rights in Lagos, pointed out that recently, the section has been used to target journalists, bloggers and activists.

She said, “Section 24 of the Cybercrime must be reviewed because it has been used to target journalists, bloggers, and activists for expressing their views or publishing articles online, and this restricts free speech and threatens media freedom.”

The country director also stated that although Nigeria has laws protecting human rights in the digital space, the laws are inadequate because the digital space is evolving daily with new concepts such as artificial intelligence.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu noted that when the Nigerian Constitution was enacted, things like artificial intelligence had not been conceived. Still, now it is the new world order, and the country must now look at artificial intelligence, the law and human rights.

She added that there must be new laws to tackle this new area because it is fast-paced and evolving.“So policies and legislations must continue to evolve to cater for these needs,” she added.

She maintained that the training for judges and lawyers is part of e-learning and to enhance their capacity in the digital space.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said that the E-right project would provide free legal assistance to victims of human rights violations, particularly digital rights violations.

The administrator of ASF France, also known as Lawyers Without Borders, France, in Nigeria, Ivan Paneff, said the training would help lawyers and judges combat misuse and abuses on social networks and how to respond to these infringements.

Paneff also disclosed that ASF France organised the training in collaboration with the European Union (EU) on the platform of the EU Rights Project and that the training had been conducted for judges and lawyers in Abuja, Lagos and Kano states.

He stated that Nigeria must ensure that people have the right to express themselves online, free from censorship, intimidation and harassment, by ensuring that their digital rights are protected and respected.