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ANNEX ONE
REPORT OF THE MAITLAMO LEGAL TASK FORCE
ADVISOR
1.0 Introduction
1.1
Public policy and legislation can be a help or hindrance in the
development of a mature networked economy. The favourable climate
that can be created by an appropriate legislative and regulatory regime
encourages communities, organisations and individuals to invest in and
use Information and Communication Technologies. Important areas,
such as Internet availability, the use of ICT in schools and health
facilities, and growth of e-commerce, are all influenced by public policy
and the legal framework developed by Botswana regarding ICT.
1.2
In general, any country wishing to participate actively in the modern
connected world should have in place ICT-related policies, legislation or
other rules dealing with a number of areas. Legal certainty must be
ensured for electronic commercial transactions, which can be enforced
and electronic documents and signatures can be authenticated. Citizens
must be able to trust the electronic environment because issues of
transactional security, privacy, and data integrity have been addressed.
The potential for fraud, obfuscation and cross-border transmission of
objectionable content, as well as new criminal behaviour (e.g., the
introduction of viruses into the network) must be addressed and cooperative enforcement arrangements established. The exact mix of
legislation, self-regulation, voluntary or mandatory industry codes of
conduct, market-based incentives and other approaches will depend on
both the issue and priorities of the citizens of Botswana, but the resulting
policy regime should address the needs of government, businesses and
individual citizens in their various roles as consumers, students, health
providers, clients, educators and so on.
1.3
This Annex is a report of the Maitlamo Legal Task Force Advisor and
addresses a number of issues that the Task Force believed required
priority attention. These include: e-commerce legislation; protection of
the e-commerce consumer; digital signatures; protection of personal
privacy; security of information systems and networks; and cyber-crime
and “inappropriate content” and lawful access.