GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):
The Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union (GPTWU) has called on the Government to withdraw legislation that will allow the authorities to tap and intercept telephone conversations.
GPTWU General Secretary Harold Shepard said that the Telecommunications Amendment and the Interception of Communications of 2008 bills, tabled in Parliament last month, would impinge on the personal lives of citizens.
The telecommunications amendment came in recognition of what authorities said was the frequent use of mobile phones in the planning and commission of serious crimes.
Record and store
It will require service providers to record and store particulars of cellular phones and SIM cards - portable memory chips used in cellphones - which they sell, as well as information on the customers who purchase these items.
Shepard said while he acknow-ledged that the legislation seeks to provide assistance in the crime fight, there were clauses that deprive citizens of the right to privacy "and places innocent workers, especially those in the telecommunications industry, in a precarious position".
GPTWU President Gillian Burton said some aspects of the legislation could also criminalise persons for simple acts of goodwill, such as the practice of passing on SIM cards to friends or family members.
Illegal transaction
"You need now to ensure that when you're going to give over a SIM card that it be done in transaction with the tele-communications agency from which that SIM card originated," Burton said, noting that if any illegal transaction is traced to that SIM, the person in whose name it was registered would be held responsible and could face fines or imprisonment.
But Gail Teixeira, presidential advisor on governance and a former home affairs minister, said the Government was holding further consultations on the bills.
President Jagdeo has defended the legislation saying it is necessary in the fight against crime.
The plan to implement inter-ception legislation came out of a special Caribbean Community Heads of Government Summit, in Trinidad, in April, which addressed the matter of security across the region.
