Members of the Right 2 Know campaign (R2K) protested outside the Film and Publication Board (FBP) offices in Centurion‚ Johannesburg‚ against its proposed Online Regulations Policy on Wednesday.
R2K‚ a coalition formed in 2010 in response to government’s Protection of State Information Bill (Secrecy Bill)‚ is opposing the new policy‚ which aims to classify content that is published on the internet.
The FPB’s chief operating officer Sipho Risiba‚ accepted the R2K’s written submission in response to the FPB’s call for comment.
He said the draft policy is principally designed to protect children from adult content on the internet.
“We aim‚ intensify and strengthen the law‚ it’s not a new regime. At the moment there’s a lot of content such as films‚ games and publications that are sold by commercial online distributors that are not classified.
“That is not in compliance with the legislation because all content that is sold or distributed in the country must be classified‚” said Risiba.
He reiterated that the policy seeks to ensure that there’s a uniform classification of content across all media platforms whether online and physical content.
But R2K’s Gauteng coordinator‚ Julie Reid‚ sang a different tune‚ calling for the FBP to scrap the policy.
“The FPB’s draft regulations for online publication are just so unworkable and unpractical. It will be impossible to implement. They’re so broad and haven’t used any narrow definitions in their regulations. The regulations are very much going to apply to anybody who wants to publish anything in the online space‚” said Reid.
The latest draft that has been released is for public comment and the FPB is following a public engagement process around the country. However‚ they plan to have these draft regulations officially instituted by this time next year.
Reid says that this period is too short.
“These regulations are so badly written as it stands and they need go way back to the drawing board. They are doing all of this under the moralistic guise of protecting children from harmful content online‚ and of course nobody can agree with that.
“But‚ the problem is that these regulations are not workable enough to do that. All it’s going to do is censor legitimate internet users like you and I and won’t do anything to solve child pornography.”
The FPB doesn’t have a deadline in which to respond to the written submission. There will also be public hearings around the country as part of a consultative process on the regulations.
The next Gauteng public hearing will take place on May 28.
Protest over proposed online publication policy
Members of the Right 2 Know campaign (R2K) protested outside the Film and Publication Board (FBP) offices in Centurion‚ Johannesburg‚ against its proposed Online Regulations Policy on Wednesday.
R2K‚ a coalition formed in 2010 in response to government’s Protection of State Information Bill (Secrecy Bill)‚ is opposing the new policy‚ which aims to classify content that is published on the internet.
The FPB’s chief operating officer Sipho Risiba‚ accepted the R2K’s written submission in response to the FPB’s call for comment.
He said the draft policy is principally designed to protect children from adult content on the internet.
“We aim‚ intensify and strengthen the law‚ it’s not a new regime. At the moment there’s a lot of content such as films‚ games and publications that are sold by commercial online distributors that are not classified.
“That is not in compliance with the legislation because all content that is sold or distributed in the country must be classified‚” said Risiba.
He reiterated that the policy seeks to ensure that there’s a uniform classification of content across all media platforms whether online and physical content.
But R2K’s Gauteng coordinator‚ Julie Reid‚ sang a different tune‚ calling for the FBP to scrap the policy.
“The FPB’s draft regulations for online publication are just so unworkable and unpractical. It will be impossible to implement. They’re so broad and haven’t used any narrow definitions in their regulations. The regulations are very much going to apply to anybody who wants to publish anything in the online space‚” said Reid.
The latest draft that has been released is for public comment and the FPB is following a public engagement process around the country. However‚ they plan to have these draft regulations officially instituted by this time next year.
Reid says that this period is too short.
“These regulations are so badly written as it stands and they need go way back to the drawing board. They are doing all of this under the moralistic guise of protecting children from harmful content online‚ and of course nobody can agree with that.
“But‚ the problem is that these regulations are not workable enough to do that. All it’s going to do is censor legitimate internet users like you and I and won’t do anything to solve child pornography.”
The FPB doesn’t have a deadline in which to respond to the written submission. There will also be public hearings around the country as part of a consultative process on the regulations.
The next Gauteng public hearing will take place on May 28.
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