Wednesday 19 December 2012

Human Rights and Internet Access: ECHR Chamber Ruling

Human Rights and Internet Access Ruling: "The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that restriction of Internet access without a strict legal framework regulating the scope of the ban and affording the guarantee of judicial review to prevent possible abuses amounts to a violation of freedom of expression
In a Chamber judgment in the case of Ahmet Yildirm v Turkey (application no. 3111/10), the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case concerned a court decision to block access to Google Sites, which hosted an Internet site whose owner was facing criminal proceedings for insulting the memory of Atatürk. As a result of the decision, access to all other sites hosted by the service was blocked.
It should be noted that this is a Chamber judgment and that it may be referred to the Grand Chamber during the next three-months but the very particular circumstances probably make such an appeal unlikely." 'via Blog this'

Sunday 2 December 2012

Leveson: the right solution to the wrong problem?

THE WRONG SOLUTION TO THE WRONG PROBLEM « Pandaemonium: " liberals and radicals... have vacated the space of free speech, allowing reactionaries to occupy it. In this the debate about press freedom mirrors that of free speech more broadly. There, too, reactionaries like Dutch politician Geert Wilders and the French Front National leader Marine le Pen have been able to promote themselves as martyrs to free speech. Why? Because liberals and the left have effectively given up on freedom of expression, taking to demanding more regulations and restrictions on unacceptable speech. Let us not repeat that mistake again." 'via Blog this'