Paris--More than three months after Islamist attacks in Paris that killed 17, French MPs on Monday began debating controversial new laws allowing spies to hoover up data from suspected jihadists.
The draft laws have sparked a firestorm of protest from rights groups, which charge they infringe on individuals' privacy.
But Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that to compare the draft legislation to the "Patriot Act" mass surveillance introduced in the United States after the 9/11 attacks was a "lie."
Valls himself presented the legislation in the National Assembly or lower house of parliament -- a sign of the importance the government attaches to the bill.
"It is high time that France had a legal framework similar to that which exists in most Western countries," said Valls.
He alluded to last week's hack of TV5Monde, when self-proclaimed cyberjihadists claiming links to the Islamic State group shut down the station and took over their social networks.
This attack "didn't kill anyone but it did intend to hurt us," said Valls.
"Freedom of information, of expression, of opinion -- and therefore democracy -- have been attacked ... it's a global threat we have to face up to," the prime minister stressed.
AFP
