{"id":79703,"date":"2019-06-27T10:33:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T08:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=79703"},"modified":"2019-06-27T10:33:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T08:33:40","slug":"hrdc-cautions-government-on-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/06\/27\/hrdc-cautions-government-on-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"HRDC cautions government on laws"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Jameson Chauluka:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_79706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79706\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gift-trapence.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-79706\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gift-trapence-300x233.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gift-trapence-300x233.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gift-trapence-45x35.jpg 45w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/gift-trapence.jpg 469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-79706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">TRAPENCE\u2014 The government is targeting critics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has asked the government to refrain from using the country\u2019s laws to silence critics.<\/p>\n<p>HRDC Vice Chairperson, Gift Trapence, was commenting on the government\u2019s warning that the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Law would catch up with those abusing social media to perpetrate violence.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe know that the government has a tendency of using such laws to suppress critical voices. We don\u2019t have a problem with the government implementing the laws but laws should not be used selectively. Currently, the government is targeting critics to achieve its political agenda,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The development comes after the government, in a statement dated June 25 2019 and signed by its spokesperson Mark Botomani, said the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act would catch up with anyone caught abusing social media and perpetrating violence<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cLet me also remind the country that the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Law is in effect. This law punishes those who abuse social media. I want to caution those who abuse social media that this law will catch up with them one day,\u201d<\/em> the statement reads.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Recently, Homeland Security Minister Nicholas Dausi warned that people found damaging public and private property in the name of demonstrations would be held accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Tension continues in the country as main political parties of Malawi Congress Party and UTM reject results of the May 21 2019 presidential election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jameson Chauluka: Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has asked the government to refrain from using the country\u2019s laws to silence critics. HRDC Vice Chairperson, Gift Trapence, was commenting on the government\u2019s warning that the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Law would catch up with those abusing social media to perpetrate violence. \u201cWe know that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79707,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79703\/revisions\/79707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}