protection and the identification, declaration and protection of critical information infrastructure, inter alia. As noted by some discussants, and rightly so, the Act has certain progressive provisions which could strengthen the regime against cybercrimes which are on the rise. Prior to the CCA, the legal regime against cybercrime was anchored on the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act No. 21 of 2009 and the ICT Act No. 15 of 2009. The two Acts were not as effective given certain limitations posed by rapid advancements in technology as well as the challenges regarding admissibility of electronic evidence for effective prosecution of certain cyber or digital crimes. The CCA was, thus, an attempt to cure this challenge identified in the implementation of the two precursor laws. However, the 2021 Act has an expanded scope with various provisions which provide remedies beyond the legal ailments identified above. This is against the backdrop of the current legal regime which has several laws that are inimical to freedom of expression as indicated in the discussion on media regulation in the preceding section. As can be noted from sentiments in the Focus Group Discussion, the Cyber Security and cyber-crimes Act in its totality threatens freedom of the media given some excessive provisions which could allow for arbitrary application or targeting of critical individuals as well as undermining investigative journalism. This could in turn create a chilling effect. For example, an FGD discussant stated that: The Cybercrimes and Cyber Security Act has affected us as the media personnel; sometimes when dealing with a client face to face, there is a sense of confidentiality one needs to have but if you decide to use a gadget, this means there is a breech. Mostly when conducting interviews with these gadgets we are somehow compromised. Another discussant noted that: It is a two-way thing. It somehow is a good move because of the fact that we have a lot of citizen journalism going on and some of it is unprofessional where people will capture without finding out what happened; it is beginning to diminish the actual professionalism of our job. Putting laws and regulations 22