Wiretapping: A new job for service providers

Wiretapping: A new job for service providers
Wiretapping: A new job for service providers

After Parliament passed the watered down version of the controversial new Criminal Procedure and Evidence Bill, a new relationship of legal wiretapping is set to begin soon. Government wil now rely on local telecommunications companies for help in communication tapping.

The government needs the communication providers in order to ensure cooperation as the latter becomes involved in a broad range of classified activities which include covert operations and wiretapping. Following the new relationship, communication service providers will offer technical assistance in carrying out a court order permitting the wiretapping of specified communications.

Wiretapping is the interception of the contents of communication through a secret connection to the telephone line of one whose conversations are to be monitored usually for purposes of criminal investigation by law enforcement officers. The government recently made amendments to the controversial new Criminal Procedure and Evidence Bill by removing clauses that would allow authorities to spy on citizens and conduct undercover operations without a warrant. The Bill, which was passed by Parliament last week, went further and criminalised the abuse of these powers, with penalties up to life imprisonment.

Editor's Comment
Gov’t, Balete should bury the hatchet

The acrimony that seemingly characterised the relationship between the Malete Land Board on behalf of the Botswana government and Kgosi Mosadi Seboko and the tribe, should now be water under the bridge as the tribe has finally gotten what it has been fighting for - the land.Kgosi Mosadi has articulated an instance upon which she was allegedly summoned to the State House by the Head of State, Mokgweetsi Masisi where the former claimed she was...

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