ethics

The proposed amendments to the ICT Act to regulate social media in democratic Mauritius entail the risk of creating a surveillance state

22/04/2021 By christina Leave a Comment

On 14 April 2021, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (ICTA) released a Consultation Paper on proposed amendments to the ICT Act for regulating the use and addressing the abuse and misuse of Social Media in Mauritius. In a nutshell, the paper makes a proposal to amend the law so that all internet communication would have to pass through a centralised proxy server managed by the agency and citizens will have to install a digital self-signed certificate on their devices to allow the server to access, decrypt, segregate social media traffic for analysis for investigative purposes. The technical toolset would be managed by an Enforcement Unit within the ICTA and there would be a National Digital Ethics Committee to decide on how to deal with “illegal and harmful content”.

There are numerous issues with this proposal. The most salient one being that the mechanism would make Mauritius a blanket surveillance state, which is incompatible with the concept of democracy. In fact, no other democracy in the world uses such a blanket system to intercept citizens’ communication in order to regulate social media. Below is a more detailed analysis of the content.

– What is the context for the proposed amendments?
– Preliminary comment about the context
– What are those proposed amendments to the ICT Act?
– Comment about the philosophy underlying the proposal
– What does the Constitution say?
– What are other democratic states doing or trying to do?
– Other key questions posed by the proposed amendments
– What are potential alternatives to the proposed amendments?
– Conclusion

What is the context for the proposed amendments?

There is a perceived need for regulation of social media in Mauritius. The stated objective is to combat illegal and harmful content (and comment) in a way that is not dependent on international social media companies. These platforms are deemed to be not sufficiently responsive to requests from the authorities in terms of:

time taken to respond,
community standards which are not as strict as our domestic laws, and
the Creole language which the platform moderators do not understand.

The paper states that a “minority of individuals or organised groups” are at fault and that “The issue at hand is when these abuses, even though perpetrated by few individuals/groups, go viral, the damage created is very far reaching.”

Preliminary comment about the context

Telegram nudes scandal in Mauritius: Media people beware!

23/03/2021 By christina Leave a Comment

If you are not already aware, a few days ago feminist activists have started talking about a group on the messaging app Telegram of which more than 1,000 Mauritian men are/were members. The group is/was sharing intimate pictures of both adult women and minors WITHOUT the latter’s consent. Some were asking for pictures of specific women and girls who have social media accounts, whether real pics or doctored ones. Again WITHOUT the consent of the latters. The group has been cloned multiple times and migrated to several other platforms as soon as the admins smelled trouble.

I put special emphasis on the LACK OF CONSENT of the girls and women concerned because some people have been going on their high horses about how the undoctored pics might have landed in the lap of the members of those groups. Some are saying there are lewd girls and women out there willingly sharing their own pics, some for money even (thus engaging in pornographic activity).

So, I want to get a few things right:

True, it’s best for anyone not to have shared with anyone else or to have posted any of their intimate pics as it makes them easy to share widely and quickly.
But, even if someone did the above willingly, shifting the blame to the victim only serves to exonerate the people who maliciously shared the pics with random dudes.
Even if a woman did engage in an illicit transaction (whereby both sender and receiver are guilty according to law BTW), that transaction was one-to-one. So, while she may be guilty of trespassing against Mauritian law by selling porn content, the man who illegally buys it and then reshares is distributing porn on a bigger scale.
Those whose pics were sent by mutual consent to a lover or partner, whether in a short-term or a long-term relationship, never intended those to be made available to other random dudes. So, this a breach of trust in a relationship, however short-lived the relationship might have been, and it is a sign of a deranged mind that indulges in the gratuitous exploitation of the image of a partner’s body for vile reasons, possibly for revenge porn.

Clearly, the intention is vile and abject. And we should start flipping the narrative against the perpetrators.

This is why I call upon all media people in my friendlist to report responsibly on the whole affair. As I just told a class of Media and Ethics students yesterday, you will need to tread cautiously when investigating the identities of those vile perpetrators (if you choose to do so). Do your homework, check, cross-check and double check. This is an agreed standard in the profession.

But, please be careful how you choose your angle and on whom you put the spotlight. If indeed there is an extensive porn market which exists within those groups, do not forget to put the spotlight on the clients and their misplaced sense of entitlement whenever they have paid a woman who they then think they own ad infinitum. Because if that dude paid Rs 500 or Rs 1000 or even a million, they cannot own the right to that woman’s image! The same logic applies to pics that were consensually exchanged. No-one can hold the right to a body and its image except for the person in question, whether that person is moral or not according to our society’s standards!

Investigate to find out who are the instigators of the groups instead of trying to find the identity of the girls or women whose pics were circulated, unless you intend to give them a voice that will not further exploit their misery.

Launch of Book ‘Ethical Journalism and Gender-Sensitive Reporting’ and ‘A Gender Code of Ethics for the Media’

04/06/2013 By christina 18 Comments

The University of Mauritius
Faculty of Social Studies and Humanities
in collaboration with UNESCO-IPDC

requests the pleasure of your company at the

Launching Ceremony
of the book ‘Ethical Journalism and Gender-Sensitive Reporting’
and of A Gender Code of Ethics for the Media

on Monday 10th June 2013 at 13 00 hrs at the R. Burrenchobay Lecture Theatre (RBLT), University of Mauritius

Guests are kindly requested to be seated by 12 50 hrs
RSVP: or

Please note that a free copy of the book (including the code) will be subsequently distributed to all journalists and media houses. A registration list will have to be completed on the day of the launching.

Feel free to share this invitation

Programme

13.00 Welcome Remarks by Mrs Christina Chan-Meetoo, editor and convenor
13.05 Assoc. Prof. Jocelyn Chan Low, Dean, FSSH
13.10 Prof Soodursun Jugessur, GOSK, Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council
13.20 Hon. Dr R. Jeetah, Minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research & Technology
13.35 Hon (Mrs.) M. F. M. Martin, Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare.
13.50 Launching of the book by Hon. Jeetah and of the code by Hon. Martin
13.55 Refreshments
Registration of journalists for copies of books

About the Authors

Table of Content

A Gender Code of Ethics for the Media

25/04/2013 By christina 3 Comments

As a follow up to our October 2012 workshop on gender-sensitive reporting which was sponsored by UNESCO, we have been asked to propose a Gender Code of Ethics for the Media. Before finalising, we are seeking views and suggestions on the draft proposal You can either comment here or send an email to or . We will soon launch a book as a follow up to the workshop on ethics in journalism and the workshop on gender-sensitive reporting. It will be made available freely to all journalists and media houses and will be an interesting follow-up to Robertson’s preliminary report.

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Proposed Gender Code of Ethics for the Media
Gender equality is an integral part of freedom of expression as all gender categories have the right to be heard and seen in the public sphere as full-fledge citizens participating in a democratic society. Gender balance is thus important in news reporting. Equally important is the need to challenge prevailing gender stereotypes.

Journalists endeavour to recognise the diversity of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, ability, sexuality, age and class. They shall strive to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender from their respective publication and pledge to put more effort to provide for more balance, fairness and accuracy in their reports. They shall strive to be inclusive by seeking a diversity of voices rather than rely solely on usual male dominant sources.

Journalists and media houses shall NOT:

use discriminatory or sexist language. In case they are citing such language as used by the subjects of their articles, they shall use appropriate quotation marks and reporting verbs while taking care not to promote or support the person quoted.
depict women in general as inferior, secondary class citizens.
resort to gender stereotyping of roles (e.g. loving, caring women, tough men, effeminate gays, masculinised lesbians, etc.).
have recourse to the commoditisation of the female body and gratuitous sexualised and eroticised views of women who are portrayed in the news.
pander to lurid curiosity.
publish the identity (name, picture) of rape victims and victims of sexual violence and other sexual offences without informed consent. They shall take all precautions to protect the identity of such victims so that the latter are not subjected to stigmatisation and further trauma.
glamourise violence against women and sexual minorities such as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender (LGBT).
advocate hatred based on gender, nor incite to cause harm.
encourage misogyny and the reinforcement of patriarchy.

In the workplace, media houses shall allow journalists to work across a diversity of beats, irrespective of gender category. They shall ensure that selection, recruitment, career pathing, capacity building, training, fast tracking and promotion are devoid of gender discrimination and that there is no tolerance for sexual harassment in the workplace. They shall encourage friendly work practices and mutual respect between men and women. Media houses shall encourage the active pursuit of knowledge in gender issues and incorporate same in their training programmes. They shall develop policies to ensure gender balance in coverage and gender equality in the workplace.

This Gender Code of Ethics should be read in line with any General Code of Ethics, whether developed by media houses, media associations or regulators.