National Cybercrime Act 2016

Charles Punaha, the National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) CEO, said the Act, passed by Parliament in 2016, will not be a form of censorship on mainstream and social media. 

“We respect freedom of information and speeches as provided for under the Constitution, but let me also specify that those freedom are referred to by law as qualified rights, meaning that people should not abuse those freedom to commit (crimes) against other people,” Punaha said. 

NICTA CEO, Charles Punaha, said: “The issue we have is some of these social media website are hosted locally and overseas.

“Those that are hosted locally are much easy to manage, like in the case of PNG Loop, from responses that we have from them, they have their own internal code of ethics for reporters when reporting on certain issues. 

“Some of the blogs that are hosted overseas are a challenge for us,” said Punaha.

They can only identify them once the cybercrime legislation is certified.

National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) CEO, Charles Punaha, told a media conference today in Port Moresby that they are already in talks with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

He said an ‘Industry Code of Practice’ will help to eliminate and prosecute people using Facebook and other social media to defame other persons.    

National Information and Communication Technology Authority (NICTA) CEO, Charles Punaha, made this clarification in a media conference today in Port Moresby.

His comments followed complains from elected leaders, senior public servants, prominent and ordinary citizens on the improper use of ICT services relating to the allegations of abuse, misuse and posting of highly defamatory, malicious, slanderous, and general misinformation through social media and online discussion forums and blogs.