Media and Internet among national security key sectors

The National Security Law Amendment Bill, if passed, will authorize the government to manage national security topics in a number of sectors.

These sectors include education, association, publication, audio and visual broadcast, including over the internet.

To carry out these management functions, the government must abide by relevant specialist laws applicable to each field, such as the Publication Law.

The First Standing Committee of the parliament yesterday signed its lists of opinion to signal the conclusion of its discussions on the National Security Law Amendment Bill.

Committee president Ella Lei met with the press after yesterday’s meeting.

When questioned about the aforementioned proposal, Lei disclosed that the committee did not express any concerns with the proposed provision, although she admitted that the committee had explored this proposal.

The committee has asked if and how the laws relating to the management functions would be amended “to coordinate with the future National Security Law,” she noted.  She added that these specialist laws will be auxiliary to the future National Security Law, hinting a higher status will be afforded to the latter.

Traditionally, codes of law are superior to local laws.

It was also recapped that the committee had conducted comparisons and contrasts between this Bill and national security laws in other places, such as the National Security Law in Hong Kong drawn up in Beijing and put into effect in Hong Kong.

On whether the government has explained why the aforementioned sectors were specifically identified in the proposal, Lei said that the committee had not raised any concerns.

Under this Bill, “probation in imprisonment will not be allowed for those who commit deliberate acts in breach of national security or their preparation activities, while parole will be barred for repetitive violators.”

Provisional bars from leaving Macau will also form a part of the preventive measures applied to those suspected of committing a national security breach. This is necessary, according to the government, to obstruct these suspects from further participating in national security violations.

Committee members were concerned with the scope of activities promoting national security, the balance between protecting residents’ rights and combating national security breaches, the areas of applications, as well as the role of the National Security Committee.

Standards for evaluating punishments as well as the differentiation between abetting and supporting sedition, among other topics, were also of concern to the committee.

Criminal procedures and preventive measures, with the latter being new to this law review, were also discussed. In contrast to the current law that was put into effect about a decade ago, this amendment has proposed greater use of new technologies, such as communication interception methods, to achieve the preventive and investigative purposes of the Bill.

Wiretapped data obtained for preventive purposes, according to the committee president, will not be allowed for judicial purposes.

The committee has fully agreed on the amendment’s future mission as the backbone legislation governing national security in Macau.

On the balance between residents’ rights and national security, the government told the committee that the amendment was drafted on the grounds of respecting both traditions and human rights.

Existing legislation on criminal procedures, provided their effectiveness can be confirmed, will be retained and used in prosecutions against national security breaches. The committee has also accepted this point.