Catherine Afeku
Legislators in the country have called on parliament to urgently come up with a bill to be passed into law to make secret recording of conversations and videoing of sexual intercourses punishable.
According to the MPs, such secret or open recordings using smart phones, which have become the order of the day, are not only offensive to the norms and customs of the country, but also serious invasion of the privacy of victims of such recordings.
They made the call on Thursday, after the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Subin, Eugene Boakye Antwi, had made a statement on the floor of the house.
According to him, Article 18 Clause 2 of the 1992 Constitution indicates, ‘No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication except in accordance with law and as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the protection of the rights or freedoms of others.’
He noted that despite the fact that right to privacy is not absolute, to legally interfere with a person’s correspondence and communication, one ought to derive authority from the existing law which itself is contingent on public safety, economic well-being of the country, threat of disorder or crime.
“The right to privacy is balanced against the public interest test, freedom of speech, press freedom and members of public’s rights to information subject to such qualification and laws as are necessary in a democratic society,” Mr. Boakye Antwi averred.
The Minister for Tourism and Creative Arts and NPP MP for Evalue Ajomoro Gwira, Catherine Afeku, indicated that the recent trend of secret or open recordings of conversation or sexual encounter and putting them in the public domain is becoming very worrisome
“I will call this electronic form of terrorism which is negatively affecting many lives and have broken many homes,” she said, stressing that there is the need for national dialogue with the clergy at the heart of it to get a suitable law that will deal with this growing trend.
She said Ghanaians must be sensitive to what is morally acceptable to the society and not wrongly copy from the West.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Builsa North and former deputy minister of the interior, James Agalga, said the right for the interception of information to help safeguard the security of the state is very crucial, but there are also existing laws that could help curb the incidence of secret recording of sexual escapades, adding that the National Communication Authority (NCA) must be up-and-doing to help curb the phenomenon.
The minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said that no other legislation by parliament could help control or minimize the posting of sex tapes on social media.
He said Ghanaians have to be disciplined in the use of the mobile phone, adding that its use is for social cohesion but not disintegration.
Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu disagreed with the minority leader, pointing out that it would not be right for parliament to throw its arms in the air while these things go on in the society and affecting the lives of many Ghanaians.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr