French parliament enacts new surveillance law

The French Parliament has approved a surveillance law that strengthens the intelligence services of the country to prevent terrorist attacks.
This law was adopted in the French Parliament by 438 votes to 86. This law was drafted by French Government three days after terrorist attack on Paris based satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015 in which 17 people were killed.
This law on intelligence-gathering was drafted by taking into account the need for surveillance mechanism that can adopt with changes in communications technology.
The new law defines the purposes for which secret intelligence-gathering may be used. It also sets up a new supervisory body named National Commission for Control of Intelligence Techniques (CNCTR).
The surveillance law gives the CNCTR and government agencies wider rules of operation and also authorizes new methods, such as the bulk collection of metadata via internet providers without judicial permission from judges.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2015