Over 150 participants took part in the second digital rights forum in Yangon on January 18 hosted and jointly organised by Phandeeyar together with MIDO, Engage-Media, Free Expression Myanmar and the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB), with support from the Swedish government.

Over half of the participants came from civil society organisations working on a variety of issues including peace, gender, freedom of expression, consumer rights, with the remainder evenly split between the private sector, government and parliament, the media and academia. More than three quarters of participants were attending for the first time. The inaugural digital rights forum was held in December 2016.

Participants were polled on the three digital rights themes of the forum: freedom of online expression, online privacy and security and equality of online access, the current state of play, and priorities for action.

Concerning freedom of expression, 68 percent thought the situation had worsened in the last year (19pc unchanged, 14pc improved); online privacy was regarded as having deteriorated by 78pc of the participants, with the remainder (20pc) believe it had stayed the same. However positive news came on equality of online access, with 59pc seeing and improvement (27pc unchanged, 14pc deteriorated).

On both privacy and freedom of expression, the top priority for action was seen as amendments to laws and policies, with public education also identified as necessary in both cases.

Ill-conceived Citizen’s Privacy and Security Law

Ei Myant Noe Khin, digital rights program manager at Phandeeyar, argued that those problems are complex issues and it is critical that stakeholders work together to address them.

Similarly, Nay Phone Latt, Yangon regional MP and founder of MIDO, said that there is little to no public consultation when it comes to developing new legislation or regulation. The absence of consultation makes the work all the more challenging. The Citizen’s Privacy and Security Law, for example, was not well-designed and, in some ways, violates digital rights of citizens. The MCRB director Vicky Bowman also described the Citizen’s Privacy and Security Law, which was adopted last year, as ill-conceived.

The opening session of the forum was addressed by the Ambassador of Sweden, Staffan Herrström and via video by David Kaye the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression.

Vicky Bowman, MCRB director, made the opening presentation which covered the digital rights developments of 2017 and a look ahead to 2018, including non-ICT related laws and policies into which digital rights should be factored.

She highlighted three relevant human rights: right to freedom of expression; right to privacy; right to information. The issues at stake include freedom of speech, harassment and online hate

Speech, data privacy and protection, cybercrime – hacking, phishing and other criminal activities, lawful interception, surveillance, access to information and the internet, inclusion and intellectual property.

There are five areas which need to be addressed, according to Ms Bowman’s presentation:

1. Amend legal and policy framework undermining human rights

2. Better ICT and internet governance and policies.

3. Widen access to internet and ICT – this is an issue of equality

4. Improve digital literacy of users in Myanmar

5. Widen the digital rights community – “beyond the geek”

When it comes to freedom of expression, the MCRB director highlighted two main issues in Myanmar – the criminalisation of legitimate expression and the issue of responsible exercising of the digital rights.

Regarding privacy protection, the country also has a set of challenges, including growth in cybercrime and hacking attacks; the lack of legal framework for privacy when it comes to surveillance and commercialising user data; digital identity card and e-government, and capacity weaknesses. For example, there is security weakness in the private sector and digital users in Myanmar still do not have an awareness of the privacy issues they face.

Access to ICT in Myanmar presents an encouraging picture, with more than 90pc of the population granted access. Despite this improvement, inequality persists, particularly for those in rural regions, who speak minority languages and who suffer from disabilities. There is a lack of digital literacy education in Myanmar and the government has failed to use the potential and channels made available by ICT to promote better governance as well as access to information.

ICT SWIA

In the ICT Sector-Wide Impact Assessment (SWIA) published by the MCRB in 2015, the reporter noted that the headlong rush to enhance access to ICTs brings challenges, particularly in the absence of adequate policy and legal frameworks.

“These frameworks are lacking both for the rollout of the network and other services, and for considering and controlling wider impacts on society associated with greater use of ICTs, such as surveillance of communications and ‘hate speech’ online. The gaps in the policy and legal frameworks are compounded by people’s basic lack of experience of using ICTs, resulting in the potential for misuse and negative impacts on a range of human rights, particularly the rights to privacy and freedom of expression.

“This means that conducting business responsibly in Myanmar’s ICT sector requires a clear commitment to understanding the complex operating context and its constraints to determine what impacts business activities may have on people in Myanmar. This needs active engagement by companies, government and civil society to promote public and informed debates, which are still a rarity in Myanmar. This also includes the need for robust approaches to filling in the gaps by managing negative impacts in line with international standards on responsible business conduct.

ICT SWIA recommendations to the government: 

1. Establish a coherent policy framework for the ICT sector with adequate safeguards.

2. Improve ICT-specific legal and regulatory reforms to ensure appropriate safeguards around government activities and a coherent framework for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector.

3. Improve wider legislative and regulatory reforms on freedom of expression and association, land use and management and labour issues to ensure appropriate safeguards around Government activities and a coherent framework for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector.

4. Adopt a rights-respecting lawful interception model and maintain open access to the Internet to ensure Myanmar does not become a modern “surveillance state”.

5. Improve data protection standards and cybersecurity.

6. Demonstrate a commitment to free and open communication through a modern Freedom of Information law and build meaningful transparency systems across government.

7. Accelerate the implementation of Myanmar’s universal service commitments.

8. Improve digital literacy of users and send clear signals about respectful use of ICT’s.

9. Strengthen requirements for responsible business conduct in the ICT sector. This includes requiring companies to provide operational grievance mechanisms for anyone affected by their activities, and to report on their implementation activities.

Source: https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-backslides-freedom-expression-digital-rights-stakeholders.html