Myanmar: Digital Content Regulation This is significantly overbroad. First, it is not confined to security but covers any “interest” of the State, which might be deemed to cover practically anything. Second, it is not limited to secret information but includes any information which might be, even indirectly, useful to any enemy. The fact that a flood or other natural disaster had caused significant damage in a country would meet this standard. Article 19(3)(b) of the ICCPR makes it clear that expression may be limited to protect national security and public order. However, Article 19(3), as interpreted by official bodies, also requires laws restricting free speech to be clear and narrow. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency of both laws and decisionmakers in many countries to define national security far too broadly.21 Guidance on the scope of national security can be found in the Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles), which is the leading international statement in this area.22 Principle 9 provides a list of categories of information that might legitimately be withheld, in the context of right to information requests, on grounds of national security. This includes: defence plans, operations, and capabilities; production, capabilities or use of weapons systems; measures to safeguard the territory of the State; critical infrastructure or critical national institutions; the operations, sources and methods of intelligence services; and national security information provided by a foreign State. In addition, international human rights standards require that before punishment may be imposed for speech causing harm to national security or public order, the individual in question must have had a clear intent to cause that harm (i.e. the expression must have been intended to incite imminent violence). Thus, Principle 6 of the Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, a precursor to the Tshwane Principles, set out the key test for restrictions on freedom of expression in the name of national security: Expression may be punished as a threat to national security only if a government can demonstrate that: (a) the expression is intended to incite imminent violence; (b) it is likely to incite such violence; and (c) there is a direct and immediate connection between the expression and the likelihood or occurrence of such violence.23 This requirement is missing from section 3 of the Official Secrets Act. Centre For Law and Democracy, Toward a Media Regulatory Reform in Middle East and North Africa: Workshop on Criminal Restrictions on Media Content, 24-25April 2014, Beirut: Background Paper: National Security and Terrorism. Available at: http://www.lawdemocracy.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/National-Security-and-Terrorism.pdf. 22 Open Society Foundations, Global Principles on National Security and the Right to Information (Tshwane Principles) (2013). Available at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/global-principles-nationalsecurity-10232013.pdf. 23 Article 19, Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (1995). Available at: https://www.article19.org/data/files/pdfs/standards/joburgprinciples.pdf. 21 - 11 -