New anti-terror bill proposed in Denmark

As a follow up to the latest anti-terror plan of action (49 proposals) of
November 2005, the Danish government is now proposing new anti-terror
legislation.

In the current round of public hearing, massive criticism has been raised by
NGOs, legal experts, Danish industry, telecom providers, and from a number
of political parties, including the Liberal Party, which is one of the
ruling parties in the current government. The criticism concerns both the
substance in the proposals and the process of their preparation.

The proposals presented by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Science &
Technology are quite far reaching and encompass a range of intrusions into
citizens’ privacy.

Among the most debated proposals are:
– An access for the police intelligence services (PET) to request
information about a citizen from any public authority as long as the
information “might serve a purpose” in relation to an investigation, i.e.
without a request for the police to justify the request. Furthermore there
is increased access for the intelligence services to exchange this
information with the defence intelligence services (FET).
– A request for telecom and Internet Service Providers to provide the police
with information on a given cell phone location at a given point in time
(so called tele observation).
– An obligation for telecom and Internet Service Providers to implement
technical measures to enable the authorities to wiretap any given
communication at short notice.
– An obligation for telecom and Internet Service Providers to implement
technical measures to provide unspecified historical data about a citizen
(data retention), though the specific data to be retained in Denmark are
still unresolved and have been so since the adoption of the first
anti-terror
law in June 2002.
– An access to the police to request that public authorities or private
companies put in place CCTV surveillance of public spaces. Furthermore,
access to the police to specify technical requirements for the surveillance
records.
– A request for airline companies to retain passenger and airline staff data
for one year, and to hand these over to the police intelligence services
upon request.

A heated public hearing was held on 28 March at the Danish Human Rights
Institute and a new round of debate will take place in the Parliamentary
judicial committee on 31 March. The coming weeks will show whether
the government will stick to the original proposals or whether some of the
more controversial part will be modified.

Revolt threatens anti-terror bill (28.03.2006)
http://www.cphpost.dk/get/94770.html

Responses from Digital Rights (in Danish)
http://www.digitalrights.dk

Responses from the Danish Human Rights Institute (in Danish)
http://www.humanrights.dk/hoeringssvar/notat2006/

Government wants to strengthen the fight against terror (in Danish)
http://www.jm.dk/wimpdoc.asp?page=document&objno=74912

Ministry of Justice draft bill (in Danish)
http://hoeringsportalen.dk/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/HOERINGSPORTAL/JUSTITSMINISTERIET/LOVFORSLAG_FRA_JUSTITSMINISTERIET/AENDRING_AF_LOV_OM_RETSPLEJELOVEN_MV._76/LOVUDKAST.PDF

Ministry of Science & Technology draft bill (in Danish)
http://www.videnskabsministeriet.dk/cgi-bin/left-lovstof-list.cgi?law_type=lovudkthrng&Line=All

Government Action Plan on anti-terrorism (in Danish)
http://www.stm.dk/publikationer/terrorpakke/index.htm

EDRI-gram : New anti-terrorism measures in Denmark (5.12.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.24/Danish_antiterror

(Contribution by Rikke Frank Jørgensen, EDRI-member Digital Rights Denmark)