MTN: We would never breach human rights

WHEN he was released by the Taliban after months of captivity a telecommunications engineer refused to go home before completing his mission to restore connectivity to the Kunar Province in Afghanistan.

Before returning to his loved ones, the engineer insisted on walking for more than two days to restore network coverage to a number of villages.

The engineer was simply living out his belief that information and communications technologies are the ultimate tools for people to find each other.

In villages across the world, because of a cellphone, e-commerce is expanding opportunities for entrepreneurship.

Mobile phones enable midwives to make childbirth safer and fresh produce vendors to break free of the middleman. Even before their nets are out of the water, fishermen can find out where they can get the best price for their catch.

Through cellphones, pro-democracy activists around the world are effectively using social networks to mobilise as never before for democracy, dignity and human rights.

These days, the most powerful weapon against bullets and teargas has been the tiny cameras inside protesters’ cellphones.

From essentially zero subscribers 26 years ago, we’ve passed a watershed of more than three billion active cellphones on a planet of some six billion humans.

Cellphones are the first telecommunications technology in history to have more users in the developing world — almost 60% of the total — than in the West. Cellphone use in Africa has been growing by close to 50% annually, faster than any other region.

We enable access to information and the exchange of ideas around the world. Unfortunately, the more we depend on technology in our lives, the more MTN’s business decisions impact human rights, particularly free expression and privacy.

It is a pity that in their rush for judgment, analysts, academics and armchair critics offer simplistic arguments about our role in society. Last weekend’s article, “MTN must develop a new business plan”, was a typical example.

Quoting academic journals, the article asserts that our business model is obsolete. But the idea that “the context that gave rise to MTN’s soaring fortunes in Africa and the Middle East no longer exists” is misinformed.

MTN operates in 22 countries across Africa and the Middle East, with diverse geographical, political, regulatory, socioeconomic and cultural contexts. Our approach has always been to take into account each country’s idiosyncrasies, an essential ingredient to our growth trajectory over the past 20 years.

That said, as an industry the telecoms sector finds itself at a crossroad, along with other sectors, due to the tough economic climate the world over. As a result, our business model is already evolving.

So, at the end of last year, MTN revised its strategy, in recognition of the fact that we have largely achieved our vision “to be the leading telecommunications operator in emerging markets”.

Our focus remains on emerging markets, but we are conscious of our role in society, as well as the role of telecoms in developing communities. MTN’s strategy is not driven only by the shareholders, but influenced by the needs of our customers, like the Afghan villagers.

The argument put forward to illustrate that “MTN’s assurances that we respect human rights in the countries where we operate is hollow” is equally hollow. We reject the assertion that the current business model fails to construct an ethical decision-making framework.

MTN is acutely aware of the human rights and privacy dimensions that impact any telecoms company. We operate our businesses within strict ethical principles that dictate what we do and how we behave.

A fact that most commentators conveniently disregard is that telecoms operators globally exist by virtue of the conditions of mobile licences granted by regulators in every country. These conditions allow governments to request information from the licence holder.

All governments have legitimate national security and law enforcement responsibilities that require aid from technology companies, from fighting terrorism to protecting children online. When governments, whether in pursuit of legitimate objectives or not, seek to remove content, restrict network access, or request users’ personal information, it puts us in a difficult situation.

MTN assesses the legality and appropriateness of such requests. We also require all those seeking access to private subscriber information, including governments and subscribers themselves, to follow local laws and processes. We would never willingly take any action that infringes on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it comes to freedom of opinion or personal security.

Rich Mkhondo is executive for corporate affairs and spokesperson for MTN Group