In Côte d’Ivoire, the National Assembly on Tuesday adopted a bill to better regulate the conditions for the exercise of the online press. From now on, a publication director will be “civilly liable for the comments” that accompany articles posted online.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Bineta Diagne
Main objectives of this draft law on the legal regime of the press: to clarify the status of publication director of an online press organ and to better regulate the comments published on articles on the Internet. Because in the text, the legislator starts from an observation: ” the frequency of breaches related to comments recorded below online press articles “.
The purpose of this law is therefore to curb the xenophobic, hateful and offensive terms that are constantly conveyed there ” and “ to avoid that hate speech become the norm under the pretext of freedom of expression “.
From now on, according to article 26 of this bill, the director of publication will be civilly liable of these comments. Any breach is liable to a fine of up to 40 million FCFA.
“A door open to all abuses”
But ” attributing the fault to the publication director is an open door to all abuses “, worries the deputy Antoine Tiémoko. Because to date, websites do not have a moderator. ” It would be necessary to train them, recruit them, pay them… This would increase the costs of websites “Explains this deputy, himself a former journalist.
Despite these reservations, the bill was adopted by a majority of the deputies. It must still be debated in the Senate for a second reading and the President of the Republic then has thirty days to promulgate the law.