28 March 2012
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
ALCEI - Electronic
Frontiers Italy
Associazione per la libertà nella comunicazione elettronica
interattiva
Press statement of 18 September 2005 [Statewatch translation]
The repression of civil rights with the pretext of terrorism
Once again, a worrying ambiguity in the Italian norms and in
their implementation
A wide-ranging debate at a global level has clearly emphasized
the need to prevent measures to combat terrorism from turning
into a repression of civil rights.
Meanwhile, in Italy, some recent interceptions involving personalities
that are well-known in political and financial circles have raised
fears and concerns that have given rise to, among other things,
public statements in favour of the rights of privacy and freedoms
of all citizens. However, these words were not followed by action
- and the legislative system, as well as actual practice, continues
to develop in the opposite direction.
The "security package" (established by Law 155/05,
of the Decree by the interior ministry of 16 August 2005, and
by the interior ministry circular 55//05 of 29 August 2005),
issued in the emotional aftermath of the terrorist attack on
the London underground, has little to do with combating terrorism,
and is more concerned with a further "turn of the screw"
at the expense of the civil liberties of citizens and businesses.
Rather than -as would have been reasonable to expect - strengthening
the role and powers of the secret services (so as to make them
more effective at preventing the occurrence of massacres and
other crimes) the Parliament has established a system which:
- subjects the public use of Internet services to the issuing
of an authorisation by the police,
- uselessly vexes all organisations, and especially non-profit
associations, by imposing complicated and expensive duties of
control over the activities of their individual members,
- sets the obligation of preserving telephone and IT traffic
data relating to communications (e-mail, chat, instant-messaging,
Voice over IP) to be undertaken by operators and Internet service
providers until 31 December 2007,
- establishes that traffic data can - in practice - be used for
any kind of proceedings concerning criminal offences, even if
they are unrelated to terrorist offences.
As is easy to understand, the political choice made by the Parliament
moves clearly in the direction of a generalised increase in police
powers in relation to the citizenry without, in relation to these
super powers, providing for an increase in responsibility and
sanctions for people abusing them - neither pre-emptive checks,
nor implementation rules that may serve to make such abuses less
frequent.
Moreover, the limits that are imposed on citizens are far from
temporary. The obligation to store traffic data will continue
until 31 December 2007, and it is obviously impossible to know
what will happen after the deadline (and, especially, what will
happen with the data that has already been stored prior to that
date). But everything else (police permissions and a host more
things) is destined to remain in force for an indefinite time
- even after, in a hypothetical and welcome future, the threat
of terrorism becomes less pressing.
Not all of the norms that have been laid down are useless or
mistaken - like those establishing the duty of storing traffic
data in such a way that it cannot be altered. Some of these could
be hosted within a more effective and reasonable legal framework.
But this does not change the fact that the "security package"
has been issued on the basis of a substantial conceptual confusion
that does not distinguish prevention from repression.
The measures that were voted in by the Parliament and the current
Government are fundamentally repressive measures, that is, that
they are useful once a crime has already been committed. But
little or nothing has been done to adopt serious pre-emptive
measures, capable of helping to avoid tragedies before they occur.
The substance of the matter is, thus, that with the excuse of
terrorism - and of the consensus that can be easily obtained
by "waving" that flag - new and more pervasive powers
have been established for the police, whose implementation can
be extended to all sorts of investigations that have nothing
to do with the repression and prevention of criminal activities.
Full-text (in Italian) of the press statement by ALCEI, "Repressione
dei diritti civili con il pretesto del terrorismo", 18 September
2005. Available at: http://www.alcei.org/index.php/archives/102
Document accompanying the statement: http://www.alcei.org/index.php/archives/103
Previous Statewatch coverage: Analysis: Italy: Tough new anti-terrorist laws adopted (html) This analysis as a pdf file
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.
Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. Registered UK charity number: 1154784. Registered UK company number: 08480724. Registered company name: The Libertarian Research & Education Trust. Registered office: MayDay Rooms, 88 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals "fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.