On Friday, the Legal Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives continued the discussion of the amendment bill, which concerns the criminalization of sending messages and phone calls, through a public communications network, of an offensive, obscene, indecent and/or threatening nature and/or with false content, with the purpose of causing annoyance, harassment or even unnecessary concern to another person, without however limiting the general right to freedom of expression.
In statements after the meeting, AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides spoke of an attempt by some "to introduce through the back door the criminalisation of defamation or libel, which has been abolished in Cyprus since 2003".
He said the specific legislation under consideration, which concerns certain posts on social media or other social networks, "should have as a safety net that freedom of expression, criticism, satire, as well as art, cannot be restricted, depending on how it annoys or who is annoyed, if at the end of the day they express the person who expresses them."
He also noted that in all that is mentioned, it should not cross the line of insult or any other criminal offences.
He stressed that his party will put forward recommendations so that yes, harassing messages or harassing continuous sending of text messages to recipients should be criminalised, however, he stressed that "posts of criticism or art or satire or expression cannot be criminalised".
For his part, the Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, Nikos Tornaritis, stressed that the Parliament will not return to the criminal libel, noting further that critical thinking, art or satire will not be criminalized.
[/P]"This is clear and I say this to be heard by all the recipients and all those involved in this debate," he said."
[/B][/P][BR][/B]Source: CNA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
