Will the Netherlands get an unsupervised secret service?
The government has been keeping an eye on activists and protesters for years. For example via the NCTV, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism. Instead of the NCTV becoming a thing of the past, a law is now being made to just stand for that. Amnesty has launched a campaign to change the law.
“There is quite a bit wrong with this law,” said Merel Koning of Amnesty International. The worst part is the intention behind it, namely that the Netherlands is being monitored. This is done under the heading of counter-terrorism and national security, but in fact it is about things that have nothing to do with that. Namely just an online discussion about the corona measures, or a group that is committed to anti-discrimination measures. And yet they are systematically monitored and analyzed by the NCTV.’
Authorizations
In 2018, the Netherlands went to the polls for the referendum on the dragnet law. ‘What happened there is that it concerned secret services, the AIVD and the NIVD,’ says Koning. ‘Because the law has been passed, all kinds of extra rules have come in that the powers of the secret services have taken place. But those kinds of rules don’t apply to the NCTV at all. And the minister apparently has no intention of adding that either.’
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According to Koning, this new product will legalize the illegal conduct of the NCTV. ‘For years, the NCTV has been monitoring the Internet traffic of communists, political leaders, organizations and activists. That came to light about a year ago through publication in NRC. And instead of the minister blowing back the NCTV, it has now been decided to write a law that allows people to keep an eye on them. This means that the NCTV is allowed to monitor people whom the AIVD is not allowed to keep an eye on.’
Public opinion
According to the King, it is not the intention to monitor public opinion in such a way. ‘We simply have opinion researchers for that. You can appoint them and give people permission to participate. That’s how you do it, and not by having the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security keep an eye on things about a pandemic.’
“We also provided information about those interventions with the information collected by the NCTV about demonstrations, including corona demonstrations,” continues Koning. That information was passed on to the police. That has nothing to do with counter-terrorism and attacks for national security,”
Task Execution NCTV
The intent is to start with the creation of the powers of the NCTV. ‘Moreover, the NCTV deems this necessary for their task performance, and that is exactly what we need to talk about: do we want the NCTV to take on that task, or do we want a service with checks and balances to take on that task? With Amnesty we say: we want the latter.’