Mar 29th 2012, by G.L. | NEW YORK A BILL on “information-technology crimes” with extraordinarily broad wording and harsh punishments is due to come before Iraq’s parliament in April, once the dignitaries and television cameras at this week’s Arab League summit in Baghdad have departed. The bill is one of four proposed laws that could severely restrict basic freedoms. (A fifth, on journalists , was passed last summer.) Access Now, a human-rights group with a focus on technology, has a report on it out today. According to an English translation from last August , it includes mandatory life sentences for using computers or the internet to “compromise” the “unity” of the state (Article 3), promote “ideas which are disruptive to public order” (Article 4), or engage in “trafficking, promoting or facilitating the abuse of drugs” (Article 5), which could include merely blogging about them.
Iraqi Network for Informatics