[governance] CoE adopts (good) Recommendation on FoE and Internet Filters

[Meryem Marzouki]

Dear all,

The Council of Europe has now adopted its Recommendation on "measures  
to promote the respect for freedom of expression and information with  
regard to Internet filters" (Recommendation CM/Rec(2008)6, adopted on  
26 March 2008).
It is at: https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=CM/Rec(2008)6
An explanatory report can be found at: https://wcd.coe.int/ 
ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=CM(2008)37&Ver=add

This Recommendation is a good one, to my knowledge the best text to  
date on Internet filters and FoE provided by an intergovernemental  
institution.

The Recommendation has been prepared by the CoE group of specialists  
on human rights in the information society, to which EDRI (European  
digital rights, www.edri.org) is an active observer. I'm reproducing  
below part of an article published on 21 November 2007 in EDRI  
newsletter, after the last meeting of the group of specialists, as a  
report on this meeting:

"Members and observers of the MC-S-IS group discussed the documents  
prepared by Austria (MC-S-IS group vice-chair) and Armenia  
representatives, with the help of the MC-S-IS Secretariat as well as  
of EDRI as observer. EDRI had the opportunity to suggest many changes  
to both documents before their submission to the whole group, and  
almost all these changes were included.
As many members of the group acknowledged, this Recommendation would  
be the first important document breaking off the usual national,  
European and international rhetoric of "technical filtering panacea"  
to fight illegal or harmful content, in that it reintroduces the need  
to respect human rights standards, first and foremost freedom of  
expression, but also the right to privacy and other provisions of the  
European Convention of Human Rights, including the rule of law  
principle. One member, namely Norway, insisted though on the  
"impression the documents gave that governments wont be allowed to  
any content filtering of blocking" anymore, but it was rather  
isolated in such position.
The final draft document recommends that CoE member States "take  
measures to promote the respect for freedom of expression and  
information as regards technical filtering measures in line with  
provided guidelines", as well as "to bring these guidelines to the  
attention of all relevant private and public sector stakeholders, in  
particular those who design, activate, use and monitor technical  
filtering measures, and civil society, so that they can contribute to  
their implementation."
The draft Recommendation sets out detailed guidelines on: (I) "Using  
and controlling filters in order to fully exercise and enjoy the  
right to freedom of expression and information", (II) "Appropriate  
filtering for children and young people", and (III) "Use and  
application of filtering systems by State actors and the private  
sector"."

(Full article at: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number5.22/coe-content- 
regulation)

Best,
Meryem Marzouki

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance