The Convergence Bill has raised hackles in the media fraternity and online publishers say it will stifle freedom of expression and will result in the regulation of content for all website owners, including private individuals.
The Bill is an attempt by the government to ensure the laws of the country are modernised to keep up with changing technologies. It aims to regulate the “convergence” or overlapping of technologies, through which, for example, websites can now broadcast radio or download video, cellphones can send e-mail, and TV stations allow people to e-mail or buy goods via their TV sets.
Comment on the Bill closed this week and in a last minute submission to the Department of Communications, the Online Publishers Association (OPA) of South Africa raised several objections to the Bill.
The OPA, which represents 16 major online publishers, proposes that the Bill should not regulate content, and that it should only regulate the convergence of technology.
The OPA argues that the Bill limits the constitutional right to freedom of expression and that this limitation is not “reasonable and justifiable”.
In contrast to radio and TV, where frequencies are scarce and require regulation, there is no such scarcity of space in cyberspace and the OPA argues that regulations are unnecessary.
Online publishers accuse the Bill of being discriminatory, because newspapers are not subject to such regulation. They point out an anomaly that arises where identical content — published both in a newspaper and online — is not subjected to regulation in the print environment but is regulated in an online environment.
The Bill, says the submission, would require anyone who publishes online to apply for a licence. “Many of these persons are fledging businesses, who can only afford to and, in fact, are best placed to market and/or provide their services online. The Bill will adversely impact on their ability to do so.”
This, the OPA argues, will discourage investment in online content, causing publishers to relocate outside South Africa resulting in “adverse economic consequence for this sector, and for the wider South African economy”.
“All local online publishers compete directly with international online publishers, such as CNN.com and BBCnews.com. These international publishers will be totally exempt from any local regulation. Such regulation would then place local online publishers at an unfair disadvantage. This is clearly not in the interests of South African business,” says the OPA in its submission.
Reinhardt Buys, managing director of IT specialist legal firm Buys Incorporated, is spearheading a campaign to stop the Bill. The Stop the Convergence Bill Campaign says that website owners will have to be licensed in order to operate. Failing to acquire licences will result in fines “as high as R500 000 or R10 000 per day”.
The Department of Communications did not respond to a request for comment by the time of going to press.
The Mail & Guardian Online is a member of the OPA