The right to privacy | Press association calls for mechanism to oversee CARIC

José Carlos Matias, president of AIPIM

The Macau Portuguese and English Press Association (AIPIM) has called on the government to set up an independent mechanism to oversee and supervise the Cybersecurity Incident Alert and Response Centre (CARIC) in light of the cybersecurity act being discussed.

CARIC is a planned centre aimed at preventing and coordinating responses to cybersecurity incidents.

In an open letter to the Secretary for Security, the association claimed that the role to be played by the Judiciary Police in the future monitoring body falls short of a clear explanation. 

The consultation paper stated that the Judiciary Police will play a role of coordination of the planned CARIC, a move that the association condemns.

The association recalled that Article 32 of the Macau Basic Law and the Criminal Procedure Code are clear on the protection of citizens’ privacy and the right to secrecy. Violations of such rights can only be carried out by the relevant authorities, in accordance with the law, and for the sake of public security or as part of a criminal investigation.

“The crux of the question here lies in the blurred boundary between having access to digital metadata and the content of the same data or communications,” the letter read.

“We do not understand [why] this should be a role to be assigned to a criminal policy body (Judiciary Police) when we are not dealing with criminal infringements but instead administrative infractions.”

AIPIM also cast doubts over the inclusion of radio and television broadcasting operators’ critical infrastructures.

As there is uncertainty on whether CARIC will be barred from having access to the content of monitored data, AIPIM believes that there may be risks related to press freedom and professional secrecy.
“We would like to highlight here what is spelled out in article 6 of the Press Law which acknowledges journalists’ right to protect their sources of information and maintain them [in] secrecy,” AIPIM stated.

AIPIM highlighted that it is essential that the future law states that CARIC representatives are barred from having access to information related to journalists’ sources.

“We deem it crucial to set up an independent and credible mechanism to oversee and supervise CARIC’s future action and ensure that the citizens’ fundamental rights are fully respected so that residents can be at ease with what is being proposed,” it added.