The Cybercrime Bill will be taken back to Cabinet for review, according to Attorney General Basil Williams, who has maintained that the controversial sedition clause in the proposed legislation is needed for Guyana to “protect itself”.
“I support the contentions of the Vice-President Khemraj Ramjattan that the state has to protect itself…I am taking it to Cabinet and we will have a look at it but I don’t want to keep repeating that this matter was before the Special Select Committee which I chaired for two years. You had [opposition parliamentarians] Madame [Gail] Teixeira, [Clement] Rohee, [Anil] Nandlall. I mean, I don’t know what ball they dropped,” Williams said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The Attorney General was being questioned on his position on Section 18 (1) of the bill, which states: “A person commits an offence of sedition if the person, whether in or out of Guyana, intentionally publishes, transmits or circulates by use of a computer system, a statement or words, either spoken or written, a text, video, image, sign, visible representation, or other thing, that (a) brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the Government established by law in Guyana.”
