The Qatar government announced plans to implement a revision to its cybercrime law, prompting concerns that the legislation will further restrict journalism and free expression.

The full draft of the proposed cybercrime law has not yet been released. The move announcing “necessary measures” to approve the law received a brief mention in a Qatar News Agency (QNA) news release on March 12. The government announced that the nation’s cabinet and the advisory council — an elected and appointed body that consults on legislation — had approved modifications to the law.

The new law, according to the QNA release, will ban any dissemination via electronic means of “incorrect news” that endangers “the safety of the state, or public order or internal or external security.”

The law also “stipulates punishment for anyone who exceeds any principles of social values.” The cybercrime legislation would also make illegal the publishing of “news or pictures or audio-video recordings related to the sanctity of the private and family life of individuals, even if they are correct, via libel or slander through the Internet or an IT device.”