 by vague references to “community peace and tranquility” that go beyond international human rights standards concerning specific conditions that must be satisfied when restricting the exercise of human rights. These protections are also available to citizens only. There are no constitutional guarantees of media freedom or access to information in the Constitution. 2. Citizens’ Privacy and Security Protection Law – 5/2017 The Law Protecting the Privacy and Security of Citizens in March 2017 implements Article 357 of Burma’s 2008 Constitution on privacy and security (see above). It is necessary to have a more detailed law on the protection of privacy. However, many of the provisions of the 2017 Law are incompatible with international human rights standards. Risks to Privacy and Data Protection  The Law contains a vague definition of privacy and a separate definition of security that between them are not in line with international standards on the right to protection of privacy.  The Law allows for surveillance, interception, entering homes on the basis of permission of a “Unionlevel Government body” rather than only on the basis of a warrant issued by a judge (Art. 8). As there currently is no other law in place on lawful interception, this provides overly broad powers without sufficient safeguards. These safeguards should include judicial oversight of individual requests for telecoms data, clear processes for seeking permission and parliamentary oversight of surveillance.13 Risks to Freedom of Expression  Contrary to international norms on defamation that call for civil liability as the appropriate and only form of redress for defamation, Article 8(f) criminalises defamation: "no one shall act in any way to slander or harm [a citizen's] reputation". Article 10 imposes a prison sentence and a fine. Criminalising defamation facilitates use of the Law to silence legitimate criticism.14 3. Telecommunications Law (31/2013 – Amended 26/2017) The 2013 Telecommunications Law sets out the worthy objectives of providing “support the modernization and development of the nation with telecommunications technology” and to “give more opportunities to the general public to use Telecommunications Services” (Art. 4) but contains a number of overly broad and sweeping powers without appropriate safeguards. The limited 2017 amendments did not address widely expressed concerns with some of these provisions, most notably with Article 66(d), addressed below. Risks to the Right to Freedom of Expression:  The objectives of the Law do not include protecting freedom of expression (Art. 4)15  Criminalization of legitimate online expression o Contrary to international norms on defamation as noted above, the Telecommunications Law criminalises defamation committed via a “telecommunications network”. (Art 66(d)). This provision has been used repeatedly to restrict the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and the freedom of the press and to chill freedom of expression.16 o The Law further criminalises additional acts of using a telecommunications network for “exorting … disturbing or threatening any person” and for “communications, reception, transmission, 13 Nine Civil Society Organisations Signed A Petition Against the Newly Enacted the Citizens Privacy and Security Protection Bill; Called the Union Parliament and the Government to Review It (March 2017) 14 Free Expression Myanmar page on defamation 15 Article 19, “Myanmar Telecommunications Law 2013, (2017) 16 Between November 2015 and November 2017, 106 complaints were made under this provision, including 13 against journalists. See, Free Expression Myanmar, ‘66(d): No real change’, December 2017, http://freeexpressionmyanmar.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/12/66d-no-real-change.pdf. In the first year of the NLD government, 54 cases were initiated under 66(d) compared to seven under the Thein Sein government and although the military was the complainant in several of the cases initiated since the NLD took power, the government has failed to use the veto power over prosecutions that is vested in the Ministry of Transport and Communications under Section 80 of the law. See, The Irrawaddy, ‘Number Jailed Under Article 66(d) Rises to Eight Since NLD Govt, Htun Htun, 8 April 2017, https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/number-jailed-under-article66d-rises-to-eight-since-nld-govt.html. 3