MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Move on to quash e-control law.
A group of deputies will today present a bill to quash a law set to go into effect on July 31 forcing telecommunication carriers to log every activity, including Internet chats, website visits, e-mails and phone calls, made in Argentina.
Aimed at improving intelligence activity against terrorism and drug-smuggling, the reform to the country's telecommunications legislation was passed without debate in Congress in December 2003 and its small print was set by a decree signed by President Néstor Kirchner last November.
According to the new legislation, all data must be stored for 10 years, and must be available to the police and intelligence agencies within one hour, 24 hours a day.
Telecommunication companies must pay for ?everything': software, hardware, and human resources, and will be required to use state-of-the-art technology as soon as it is available.
This news was known already in specialized circles, but only gained public attention after a leading newspaper last weekend published a story on the matter. Even some of the legislators that voted hastily for the bills were surprised are moving to quash it.
A group of deputies led by Peronist Christian Ritondo are today scheduled to present a bill to annul the controversial law on the grounds that it violates privacy laws and constitutional rights.
The bill was reportedly drafted by the Peronist Lower House caucus following a recommendation by the SIDE state intelligence agency. Government sources that declined to be named said that the administration will not comment on the law until there is court ruling on the issue. A number of individuals, including well-known constitutional experts, have appeared in court to challenge the law.
"We will wait for the courts to speak first," said a government official. Asked about the issue, Justice Minister Horacio Rosatti declined to comment.
Opposition politicians, however, lashed out at the government. "This President is obsessed with introducing totalitarian measures to control citizens," said Deputy Fernanda Ferrero of the Recreate centre-right party led by Ricardo López Murphy.
"I am absolutely against it because it would condition our liberty," said Mauricio Macri, head of the Commitment for Change centre-right opposition party. (BAH)
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