Senegalese Minister of Justice, Professor Ismaïla Madior Fall, said Tuesday, 18 December 2018, in Dakar that the adoption of a new Electronic Communications Code is not intended to “censor” the Internet, but to provide “minimal regulation” in the use of this tool through its various formats.
“Today, everyone is aware that we cannot censor (the Internet); however, it requires minimal regulation,” Fall said.
Adopted on 28 November 2018, by the National Assembly, the Electronic Communications Code created controversy in the last paragraph of Article 27, where it states: “The Regulatory Authority may authorise or impose any traffic management measure it considers useful in order to preserve competition in the electronic communications sector, and ensure the fair treatment of similar services.”
On the other hand, the Minister of Justice, speaking Tuesday morning at the “Digital Tuesdays” event, organized by the African Performance Institute (API), which focused this time on “Senegalese society facing the challenge of innovations in information technologies,” specified that it is a measure of “control” and not “censorship.”
In addition, Professor Fall noted that “digital technology is now an opportunity to modernise societies,” since it “qualitatively strengthens democracies.”
“We insult (on the Internet), because it’s new. But when digital culture is so developed, there will be no time to insult,” he said.
Sociologist Fatou Sow Sarr, for her part, advocated “education” on the Internet in order to encourage people to “collective self-censorship in the face of abuses.”
And this means, according to her, “ensuring that our young people have a sense of moderation and responsibility” in their use of the Internet.
Professor Alex Corenthin, optimistic about the “big challenges” of digital technology on the way it is used in Senegal, argued that “our society is strong enough to have solutions to these challenges.”
The media must not be left out in this said Mamadou Ndiaye from Emedia Invest Group. According to him, “the response of African media is timid in the face of what is being orchestrated”, whereas “the answer lies in the development of content” by these media.
“Social media do not develop content,” Ndiaye said, calling above all for thinking and concretizing reflection on “bodies for validating information intended for the African public,” given that “digitalization is a must in the contemporary world.”
– APA
