In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Eswatini, South Africa and Zimbabwe have implemented new rules on disinformation. But these may have unintended consequences.
, limitations of rights even in the context of states of emergency or national disaster must be: directed towards a legitimate objective, strictly necessary, the least restrictive means to reach this objective, non-arbitrary, non-discriminatory and of limited duration. Clearly set out and narrowly defined laws must provide for any such limitations.
of any statement made “with the intention to deceive any other person” about Covid-19, about the infection status of any person or any measure taken by the government “to address Covid-19”. This offence carries a possible fine or up to six months in prison. The regulations are overbroad because they criminalise the spread of false information regardless of intention or whether any harm was or could have been foreseen. This means that even in cases where a person has taken reasonable steps to verify information they may still fall foul of the law if the information is determined to be inaccurate by state bodies.
Though we may be frustrated that some people fail to understand the urgency of lockdown, the importance of social distancing and the fine details of the science of Covid-19, it would be a mistake to criminalise what we may perceive as ignorance. Often such “ignorance” is a situation in which severely limiting circumstances have obstructed the clear transmission of information to people.
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