Fin24.com | Scrap online censorship plan – Right2Know

2015-03-11 17:11 - Thinus Ferreira

(Lohanna Hoffmann)

Cape Town - Civil society watchdog, The Right2Know Campaign, is demanding that the Film and Publications Board (FPB) put aside a controversial draft on internet regulation.

Internet censorship looms for all South African websites, internet publications and blogs in a draft Online Regulation Policy gazetted by the FPB.

The draft policy, which has been gazetted for public comment, requires that online distributors must have digital content classified in terms of the boards guidelines.

This means that content producers would have to apply and pay for classification before their content is made available online.

The FPB said it is does not want children to be exposed to unclassified content via the internet while the board has also raised concerns over user-generated content of an offensive nature such as racism.

However, Right2Know wants the FPB to stop what it calls an attempt to exercise pre-publication censorship of the internet in South Africa.

According to the Right2Know Campaign, the censorship regulations could infringe on the South African publics right to freely get information as well as to impart information a right enshrined in the South African Constitution.

The target of this regulation is not just major distributors, but also individuals, says the Right2Know Campaign.

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Fin24.com | Scrap online censorship plan - Right2Know