GOAT BITE THE POLICE?
November 2, 2014, By KNews, Filed Under Features/Columnists, Peeping Tom, Source - Kaieteur News
The media should not get too excited by the threats being made to prosecute Kaieteur News on charges of intercepting communication. Kaieteur News has nothing to fear in relation to any such charges which may be laid.
In 2008, Guyana passed a law known as the Interception of Communication Act. Ironically the purpose of the Interception of Communication Act 2008 is to allow for the lawful interception of communication and to ensure that there is the capacity locally for the interception of communication. In this regard the Act allows for the acquisition of the means by which protected communications may be accessed and placed in an intelligible form. In other words, it allows for lawful wiretapping.
Section 3 of the said Act prohibits the interception of a communication during the course of its transmission by means of a communication system. The clear intention here, in my opinion, is to prevent persons from eavesdropping on live communication i.e. listening in while this communication is taking place.
There is no evidence that the tape recording that is at the centre of a public controversy in Guyana at the moment was obtained by someone listening in to the conversation.
In any event, the said Interception of Communication Act defines “intercept” as referring to the monitoring and recording of transmissions to and from apparatus comprising the system. In other words it implies third party eavesdropping using the very communication system in which the transmission is taking place. This clearly does not seem to be the case in terms of the recording which is now under police investigation. The same law also defines intercept as interference or tampering with the communication system.
I am therefore not worried about any laws being broken by Kaieteur News. In my humble estimation none were broken.
What I am more concerned about, and what the media should be more concerned about is the fact that there is now a growing tyranny in Guyana. Unless people begin to realize this, they will not be able to make sense of what is taking place locally.
One of the prime targets of tyrants is free speech. The media therefore has to believe that eventually not just Kaieteur News but all independent media houses will fall under the hammer.
The media should be more worried about this. There is a sustained assault on free expression in Guyana. The government is just the handmaiden in this matter. Their assaults on the media are because certain vested economic interests are being exposed. As such the government is out to destroy the independent media in Guyana, because the interests of the economic oligarchy are being threatened. Tyrants cannot live with independent thought.
I am not surprised at the reaction of the government to this tape controversy. This is the very reaction that one expects from a tyrannical regime. They have stood by their man. Nothing else was expected. Was anyone seriously expecting that the President would have done anything different?
I am not at all surprised that the government would question the legality of the recording. This is the best and only defence they can muster. They have no other defence. They have been caught with their pants down and their trophies exposed.
No one should also be surprised at the action of the police. They were expected to have a ‘hold me loose me’ approach to this matter. Nothing that the police have done so far should have surprised anyone in Guyana.
The police are not going to interview the person at the centre of the conversation. They are not. Instead, what seems to be happening is that they want to blame Glenn Lall for their own failure to do what is expected of a professional police force, something that Guyana does not have and never had.
They now say they need to interview Glenn Lall. Well when the complaint was filed by the tax chief against Glenn Lall, the police did not call in the tax chief for clarification. In fact, they turned up at Kaieteur News and spoke to Lall. How come they cannot find him now? What happen, goat bite them?
I am not surprised at the games that the police are playing. The police are in receipt of a complaint by the publisher of this newspaper. They have been provided with a statement and with evidence to support the complaint. What more clarification do they need? The complaint is not about interception of communication. It is about a physical threat. There is a recording to support the complaint and there are statements explaining the complaint. The complaint by Lall will go nowhere, because we are dealing with a tyrannical regime who will not concede to an investigation.
There will no criminal charges arising out of the complaint made by the publisher of this newspaper. You will be lucky if anyone outside of Kaieteur News is questioned. This is Guyana where equality before the law is just clichÉ.
Source - http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....oat-bite-the-police/