By Natalie Alkiviadou

A Proposal to Criminalize Fake News in Cyprus

In Cyprus, a new legislative proposal introduces a prison sentence of up to five years on those spreading fake news. I argue that criminally punishing fake news is absolutely horrifying for free speech, for media pluralism, and for democracy. Criminalizing fake news is, to say the least, highly problematic for a number of reasons. It has a “chilling effect” and it causes a self-censorship by media and civil society organizations, activists and average citizens. Moreover, the concept of fake news is highly ambiguous and contested which reduces the certainty and clarity of its regulation. Furthermore, criminalizing fake speech is, in fact, counterproductive as it is not reducing the content but “often draws more attention to it.” While criminalizing fake news is normatively wrong, it is especially problematic in countries like Cyprus, which are already marred by a tainted media landscape. The country landed at place 65 out of 180 in the 2024 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters without Borders (RSF) – just after Sierra Leone and before Argentina, labelling the current state of the art as “problematic.”

Current proposal

On 3 July 2024, the Legal Committee of the Cyprus Parliament discussed a proposed amendment on the dissemination of fake news, threats, insults and obscene images online. The amendment will be presented to the Cyprus Parliament in September 2024. In this post, I only focus on the aspect of fake news. The new proposal specifically uses the terminology of fake news instead of more commonly used disinformation. However, in this post the terms disinformation and fake/false news are used interchangeably, both of them entailing the element of intent, contrary to the concept of misinformation.

Despite the fact that European and international institutions condemn the criminalization of fake news, Cyprus is not the only State of the European Union to take this route. In 2021, Greece amended its Criminal Code to prohibit fake news. Human Rights Watch urged the Greek Government to immediately revoke these provisions noting that this law could be used to “punish media professionals, civil society, and anybody who criticizes or takes issue with government policies, creating a chilling effect on free speech and media freedom.” This piece of legislation has a lower (but still high) prison sentence than its Cypriot counterpart, specifically up to three years. Similarly as Cyprus, Greece has problems with the open media with a score of 57.15 and a place of 107 out of 180 according to the 2024 Reporters without Borders Index. Additionally, Malta also criminalizes fake news with a prison sentence from one to three months, or between three and six months if the offence results in disturbance. In the European Union, the only country with a fake news prison sentence equivalent to the Cypriot proposal is Orban’s Hungary which has been systematically experiencing a deterioration of the rule of law. Hungary is ranked 72 out of 180 and it has received a score of 67 out of 180 in the RSF Index. In all said countries, the situation of the freedom of press is ranked as “problematic”.

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Natalie Alkiviadou is a Senior Research Fellow at The Future of Free Speech. Her research interests lie in the freedom of expression, the far-right, hate speech, hate crime, and non-discrimination.