13 November 2001

COUNCIL OF EUROPE MOVES TO BAN INTERNET HATE SPEECH


The Council of Europe (COE) is working on adding a side agreement to its cybercrime convention which would ban racist content and hate speech originating from the Internet, reports the European Journalism Centre (EJC), citing an article in the "New York Times".

If approved by the COE's 43 member states, the side agreement will compel signatories to ban racist Web content and online hate speech originating within their borders or "aimed at an audience in another country."

The convention, set for formal ratification in Budapest on 23 November, defines activities such as online fraud, child pornography and hacking as cybercrimes. Originally, the COE tried to include online racist content and hate speech in the convention's definition of cybercrime, but the United States resisted the move, citing a conflict with the free speech protections in its constitution's First Amendment.

For more information on the COE, see
http://press.coe.int/cp/2001/646a(2001).htm.

To view EJC's story, see
www.ejc.nl.



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Also from the Communiqué, 13 November 2001

INTERNATIONAL: MEDIA GET BOOST FROM PINA 13 November 2001 INTERNATIONAL: EXPANDS LIST OF PRESS PREDATORS 13 November 2001 LIBERIA: PRESS UNION REVIVES MONTHLY MAGAZINE 13 November 2001 BULGARIA: IFJ URGES GENUINE REFORM FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING 13 November 2001 RWANDA: NEW PRESS LAW RAISES CONCERNS 13 November 2001 IRAN: FIFTY-TWO NEWSPAPERS SHUT DOWN SINCE 1997; 1,000 SATELLITE DISHES CONFISCATED 13 November 2001 AFGHANISTAN: WAR CLAIMS FIRST MEDIA CASUALTIES 13 November 2001

International

A "to do" list for internet freedom 16 May 2012 Human rights council urged to recognise role of free expression in protecting rights of LGBT persons 7 March 2012 ARTICLE 19 welcomes Internet free expression debate 1 March 2012 RSF concerned about Google's new country-redirect service on Blogger 16 February 2012 Twitter urged not to cooperate with censors 27 January 2012


 
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