ARTICLE - TAPPING TELEPHONES - CONATEL

CONATEL DENIES RUMORS OF TELEPHONE TAPPING
(Haiti Libre) -

Last Wednesday, Senator Simon Dieuseul Desras, President of the Senate declared that members of government, and some journalists, were tapped. "We do not yet have evidence on the record, but we have experts who are working to establish the truth..." Senator Benoît [member of the Commission of Inquiry on Nationality] had stated on radio by saying, "I am sure that I am being placed on listening..." Statements sufficient in Haiti o fuel a persistent rumor and speculation about the origin of this alleged phone tapping...

Jean Marie Guillaume, Director General of the National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL), along with all actors involved in the field of mobile telephony in Haiti, Thursday, formally denied this rumor and described these accusations as "extremely serious and dangerous"; ....the information suggesting that parliamentarians are being tapped. He also denied any kind of agreement with the telephone operators for this purpose, and invited the people behind these rumors, to publicly apologize.

For his part, Maarten Boute, the Director of Digicel affirmed that these rumors were completely false. "Technically, it's not impossible,... but it requires expensive and advanced equipment. It would also require very close collaboration between the State and the operators concerned, and this would also require legislation. None of these elements exist today."

The Director of CONATEL invites customers to be cautious, because anyone can install spyware on the phone of a subscriber to have control of it.

Release of CONATEL
Following the apprehension expressed or press reports about possible interception of telephone conversations of some state authorities and media, the Directorate General of the Executive Body of CONATEL considered it essential to organize Thursday, March 8, 2012 a press conference to bring the following clarifications :

In any case, CONATEL can't be involved in such practices, whenever they have occurred, because neither legally nor technically, its intervention would have been necessary;

Operators have publicly confirmed not possessing in Haiti, or any other place, where they operate, expensive equipment necessary for any telephone tapping.

The respect of republican institutions, the constitutional prerogatives of the elected and of the rights of the population, remains at the heart of the approach of socio-economic promotion by the development of Telecommunications falling within the mission and functions of CONATEL.

Consequently, CONATEL, as the regulatory authority, bears a formal denial to such allegations, and assures everyone of its collaboration with all relevant bodies to shed light on the subject, and to restore the necessary confidence to the further development of the sector for the benefit of the entire Haitian population.

Directorate General
Conatel