Government to Amend Cyberbullying Law After Constitutional Concerns

Attorney General Anthony Sylvestre has confirmed that certain provisions of the cyberbullying legislation may be unconstitutional.  According to the Prime Minister, this declaration has urged the government to review and return to the House of Representatives with amendments.  The Pm’s statement came in an interview this morning where he commended Interim Police Minister Julius Espat on his quick actions and efficacy over the past week, particularly, the handing over of the Alberto August matter to the DPP.  The country leader also addressed the broader concerns raised by the Oscar Mira affair, saying the situation has shown the importance of ensuring that politicians do not misuse the powers entrusted to them. He stressed that public office must never be used to pursue personal grievances and indicated that safeguards are needed to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “I support that and I’ve said it over and over that okay let’s start with the cyber bullying law. It’s a cyberbullying law that was passed by the previous government and it provides for the action that has been taken. I asked the Attorney General to take a look at it and he thinks it is unconstitutional so quite likely hopefully at the next House meeting we’ll have to make some amendments to that. So let’s start with that. Secondly I did ask the Minister to have the DPP to take a look at it to see if there is a case or not. She decided that there is not a case. Clearly I would like to make it very clear that we need to be careful as politicians that I don’t think that the public has a problem if a politician were to sue anybody because they believe that they have been aggrieved, they’ve been slandered but I think the public could have a problem when they would feel that the minister is using the state to go after its enemies. Now I’m not in any way suggesting that that is what Honorable Mira was doing, I don’t think he was doing that. I think he felt that there was a case but I just feel strongly that we should not go down that road because once you go down that road then others then can take abuse of it and we should not allow that.”

The Prime Minister’s comments represent a noticeable shift in tone from the early days of the Oscar Mira controversy, when the government largely defended the actions taken while facts surrounding the matter were still emerging. Since then, Oscar Mira has taken a leave of absence, he has withdrawn the cyberbullying complaint against Alberto August, and the DPP has declared that there is no case for August to answer to.  Love News will have much more from today’s interview with Prime Minister Briceño in our next newscast at six, including his candid reaction to the controversy and why he says he is deeply disappointed by the events that unfolded.