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Archive for the ‘OSCE’ Category

Internet disconnection breaches free expression rights, says co-operation body | Pinsent Masons LLP

OUT-LAW News, 20/07/2011

Countries that block internet access on copyright infringement grounds are stifling freedom of expression and the free flow of information, according to a new report on the internet and freedom of speech.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said that website blocking was ‘an extreme measure’ that countries should not use as a means of punishment. The OSCE is made up of 56 member countries and aims to identify, prevent and solve areas of political, economic and other areas of conflict.

‘As blocking mechanisms are not immune from significant deficiencies, they may result in the blocking of access to legitimate sites and content,’ the OSCE said in a report (233-page / 1.88MB PDF) on Freedom of Expression on the Internet.

‘Further, blocking is an extreme measure and has a very strong impact on freedom of expression and the free flow of information. Participating States should therefore refrain from using blocking as a permanent solution or as a means of punishment,’ the report said.

‘Blocking of online content can only be justified if in accordance with these standards and done pursuant to court order and where absolutely necessary. Blocking criteria should always be made public and provide for legal redress,’ the report said.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right guaranteed in the European Convention on Human Rights and in the UK by the Human Rights Act.

In the UK provisions within the Digital Economy Act allow the Culture Secretary to draw up new regulations that would see courts decide whether to force ISPs to block access to pirated copyright works.

The DEA also allows Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, to draw up new regulations to detail how internet service providers (ISPs) should be involved in attempts to stop copyright infringement.

In a draft code of practice published in May last year, Ofcom said that internet users should receive three warning letters from their ISP if they are suspected of copyright infringements online.

Details of illegal filesharers that receive more than three letters in a year would be added to a blacklist, the draft code said. Copyright holders would have access to the list to enable them to identify infringers, it said.

The Government is expected to approve Ofcom’s draft code next year.

BT, the largest UK ISP, is also currently fighting a court battle against the Motion Picture Association (MPA) arguing that it should not have to cut off its customers’ access to a copyright infringing website.

The MPA is challenging BT under Section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act and is seeking a court injunction against BT to compel it to act.

Section 97A of the Act gives the High Court, or in Scotland the Court of Session, the power to grant an injunction against a service provider if it had ‘actual knowledge’ that someone has used its service to infringe copyright.

The Act does not specify what purpose an injunction must serve. Section 97A implements the requirements of the EU Copyright Directive which states that countries must ensure that copyright holders have the right to apply for injunctions against intermediaries, such as ISPs, whose services are used to infringe copyright.

Blocking measures also exist in other countries. In France a controversial ‘three strikes’ policy currently exists where a court can punish serial copyright infringers by ordering ISPs to disconnect them from the internet for up to a month.

A voluntary agreement between ISPs and copyright holders in the US was also recently formed which could result in ISPs slowing or blocking customers’ web browsing.

The OSCE criticised its members that do not have measures in place to ensure net neutrality. Net neutrality is a principle which ensures that ISP customers have the right to access all online information equally rather than having easier access to content from companies that have paid their ISP.

‘Network neutrality is an important prerequisite for the Internet to be equally accessible and affordable to all,’ the OSCE report said. ‘It is, therefore, concerning that over 80% of the OSCE participating States do not have legal provisions in place yet to guarantee net neutrality.’

‘Users should have the greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications, or services of their choice without the Internet traffic they use being managed, prioritized, or discriminated by the network operators,’ the report said.

The OSCE also said that countries must ensure that their residents can access the internet.

‘Everyone should have a right to participate in the information society, and the states have a responsibility to ensure citizens’ access to the internet is guaranteed,’ the OSCE report said.

Technology law news is also available from Bootlaw, a free resource for technology start-ups, with regular events hosted by Pinsent Masons.

See: The OSCE report (233-page / 1.88MB PDF)

OSCE: Internet access is a fundamental human right

Geoff DuncanJuly 11, 2011

A new report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says Internet access should be a fundamental human right, like freedom of expression.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has released its first overview report (PDF) examining laws regulating use of the Internet in member states, and posits that access to the Internet should be considered a fundamental human right, akin to freedom of expression. The study also argues that Internet blocking and content filtering mandates and technologies are, in most cases, cannot be reconciled with the free flow of information and freedom of expression—both of which are basic commitments made by the 56 members of the OSCE.

‘Everyone should have a right to participate in the information society and states have a responsibility to ensure citizens’ access to the Internet is guaranteed,’ the report reads.

The study, authored by Istabul Bilgi University’s Yaman Akdeniz and commissions by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović examines the level of Internet content regulation in the OSCE region and evaluations how member states’ laws embody their OSCE commitments and international standards.

Some member states were unable to supply information to the study due to legal restrictions or simply because information wasn’t available. The study emphasizes that governments’ lack of transparency on how they manage and regulate Internet access creates more difficulties for users trying to understand Internet regulation regimes that may apply to them. Both the report and Akdeniz note Internet blocking does take place within the OSCE area.

‘Legislation in many countries does not recognize that freedom of expression and freedom of the media equally apply to Internet as a modern means of exercising these rights, ’ said Representative Mijatović, in a statement. ‘In some of our states, ‘extremism’, terrorist propaganda, harmful content, and hate speech are vaguely defined and may be widely interpreted to ban speech types that Internet users may not deem illegal.’

The report also noted that many countries permit the complete suspension of Internet access and services during a declared state of emergency, war, or in response to other security threats.

The OSCE is comprised of 56 member states throughout Europe and Central Asia—including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Sweden, the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Croatia. It also includes Canada and the United States.

The Internet is a human right | memeburn

By Staff Reporter
07.12.11

Recognition of the internet’s part in the Arab Spring — the uprisings for democracy in the Middle East this year — has cemented the role of the internet as a tool for freedom and protest.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), comprised of 56 nations from across the developed and developing world, has now formally recognised this fact.

In a report published last week, the transnational body recognised that ‘access to the internet should be seen as a fundamental human right and respected as much as freedom of expression’.

The OSCE’s analysis was the first ever of state regulations on Internet access within the 56-member body, and found that ‘everyone should have a right to participate in the information society and states have a responsibility to ensure citizens’ access to the internet is guaranteed’.

Highlighting Finland and Estonia — which were praised — Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE’s media representative said presenting the report, ‘some governments already recognise access to the internet as a human right. This trend should be supported as a crucial element of media freedom in the 21st century’.

Since last year, Finnish citizens have a legal right to broadband internet access, the first country to lay down such a rule, while Norway has also taken steps in that direction. Since the early 2000s, Estonia has also been receiving praise for its progressive internet policies.

Seven other states admitted they had regulations, however, to defend national security and to protect public health, allowing them to limit access to the internet in cases of state emergencies. At least 10 states also failed to submit any data to the OSCE for its report.

‘Legislation in many countries does not recognise that freedom of expression and freedom of the media equally apply to internet as a modern means of exercising these rights’, Mijatovic noted.

As a result, the organisation offered guidelines to these countries to ensure that citizen access to the web was guaranteed, through clearly worded laws, for example, was well as refraining from blocking content and generally respecting freedom of expression and of the media.

‘We will use the study as an advocacy tool to promote speech-friendly Internet regulation in the OSCE participating States,’ Mijatovic said.

This recognition of internet access as equal to other basic human rights — such as freedom of opinion and expression — is in step with findings by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

A report tabled by the UNHRC before the United Nations General Assembly found disconnecting users from internet access to be a human rights violation.

The United Nations finding flies in the face of the authoritarian regimes of the Middle-East where leaders, facing protests organised via social networks, often choose to disconnect the internet entirely in retort.

A forced lack of internet access can also affect citizens of democratic nations, however, where there is a perceived threat to the status quo.

Laws in France and the United Kingdom — to give two examples — allowed the government to cut off internet access to people repeatedly found guilty of swapping files illegally on the internet.

These laws have proven to be controversial and are opposed by advocates of an ‘open internet’ and ‘net neutrality’ movement. — AFP with additional reporting by Staff Reporter

OSCE – Three Strikes Laws Incompatible with International Obligations to Free Speech

Written By Drew Wilson
July 13, 2011

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization has issued a report that explicitly states that a three strikes law is a disproportionate response to dealing with copyright infringement.

Last month, Frank La Rue, the UN’s Special Rapporteur slammed attempts to put in place three strikes laws as a violation of human rights. Now, it appears, that another large organization agrees with this.

The OSCE recently published a paper documenting freedom of speech on the internet and laws that impacted such freedoms. The available PDF states the following with regards to the emerging of three strikes laws around the world:

The increased use of so-called ‘three-strikes’ legal measures to combat Internet piracy is worrisome given the growing importance of the Internet in daily life. ‘Three-strikes’ measures provide a ‘graduated response’ resulting in restricting or cutting off the users’ access to the Internet in cases where a user has attempted to download pirated material. The third strike usually leads to the user’s access to the Internet being completely cut off. This disproportionate response is most likely to be incompatible with OSCE commitment on the ‘freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.’ (55) In the Charter for European Security, the participating States in 1999 ‘reaffirmed the importance of independent media and the free flow of information as well s the public’s access to information [and committed] to take all necessary steps to ensure the basic conditions for free and independent media and unimpeded transborder and intra-State flwo of information, which [they] consider the be an essential component of any democratic, free and open society.’ (56) Any interference with such a fundamental human right, as with any other human right, must be motivated by a pressing social need, whose existence must be demonstrated by the OSCE participating States and must be proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued. (57) Access to the Internet must be recognized as a human right, and therefore ‘graduated response’ mechanisms which could restrict users’ access to the Internet should be avoided by the OSCE participating States.

(55) Paragraph 9.1. of the Final Act of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE, June 1990. http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2006/06/19392_en.pdf

(56) Paragraph 26 of the Charter for European Security adopted at the OSCE Istanbul Summit 1999. See at

http://www.osce.org/mc/17502.

(57) See Paragraph 26 of the Final Document o fthe Moscow Meeting of the Conference on the Human
Dimension of the CSCE, at http://www.osce.org/fom/item_11_30426.html. See also Olsson v. Sweden
(No. 1), judgment of 24 March 1988, Series A no. 130, § 67, and Bladet Tromsø and Stensaas v. Norway
[GC], no. 21980/93, ECHR 1999-III.

In other words, if a government of a given state supports their international obligations to free speech, then the ‘graduated response’ laws where users are cut off after a third accusation of infringement must be avoided. You can’t have free speech and a three strikes law at the same time.

It’s particularly interesting that this finding was made since France, the country that has a three strikes law already in place, is also a member of the OSCE. Another member of interest is the US, the same country that has been pushing other countries to implement a three strikes law.

What this report essentially does is help solidify the point that a ‘graduated response’ or a three strikes law is a violation of human rights. There are international bodies that do agree with this.

The next question will no doubt be whether countries will actually listen to the report or push for laws that disregards human rights. We already know that the United States seems to be content with sacrificing their national security in favor of a six strikes agreement, so, it’s difficult to say that free speech will be a motivating factor to slow down the implementation of these laws.

Foreign Office to hold talks on whether internet access is a human right – 14 Jul 2011 – Computing News

by Gareth Morgan
14 Jul 2011

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will host a multidisciplinary meeting next week exploring the UK’s policy towards freedom of expression on the internet.

The first meeting, which will be led by Jeremy Browne, minister for state at the FCO, takes place on 20 July. It will include representatives from human rights campaigners.

Internet access has become a defining feature of the Arab Spring protests – a wave of revolutions and protests in the Arab world – with several regimes blocking citizens’ internet access in an effort to quell protests.

That has resulted in widespread calls from human rights campaigners for governments to acknowledge the critical role the internet plays in people’s lives.

In early July 2011, the UN-affiliated Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called for internet access to be treated as a fundamental human right.

‘Some governments already recognise access to the internet as a human right. This trend should be supported as a crucial element of media freedom in the 21st century,’ said Dunja Mijatovic, an OSCE’s spokesman.

The UK government has recognised the increasing importance of internet access, even if it lacks a formal stance on whether it counts as a human right.

In a parliamentary written answer, Foreign Secretary William Hague said the government were committed to supporting people’s right to access – and express their views on – the internet.

‘[We] will continue to encourage states that restrict access to online media to uphold their international human rights commitments,’ he said.

The Associated Press: 56-nation Internet review shows wide differences

(AP) – 08.07.2011

VIENNA (AP) — An international review showing wide variances of Internet freedom gives Finland the best marks for making citizens’ access to a broadband connection a legal right.

But the 225-page report also expresses concern about the level of blocking practices encountered in some of the 56 states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The report, published Friday, notes that Turkey has decided to introduce a mandatory Internet filtering system effective Aug. 22.

It said this would be the first such restriction within the OSCE region, which encompasses Europe, Russia, North America and central Asian states.

The report was presented at OSCE headquarters in Vienna.

Internet blocking practices a concern, access is a human right, says OSCE media freedom representative at launch of OSCE-wide study – Representative on Freedom of the Media

08.07.2011

VIENNA, 8 July 2011 – The Internet should remain free and access should be considered a human right, said the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović at the presentation of a report on regulations affecting new media in the OSCE region today.

The study, commissioned by the office of the Representative and authored by Yaman Akdeniz, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University, measures the level of Internet content regulation in the OSCE area and assesses national laws in light of OSCE commitments and international standards of free expression and access to information.

The Study on legal provisions and practices related to freedom of expression, the free flow of information and media pluralism on the Internet is the first ever OSCE-wide review of laws regulating the Internet. Mijatović said the rapid development of Internet technologies and growth in user numbers were factors that inspired the report, which offers recommendations on how to keep the Internet open.

‘We will use the study as an advocacy tool to promote speech-friendly Internet regulation in the OSCE participating States,’ Mijatović said. ‘Some governments already recognize access to the Internet as a human right. This trend should be supported as a crucial element of media freedom in the 21st century.’

The study found that some participating States had problems submitting information for the study because legal provisions or relevant statistics were not easily retrievable. It also emphasizes that this lack of clarity makes it difficult for users to understand Internet regulation regimes.

Akdeniz expressed concern about the level of blocking practices encountered in the OSCE region. ‘Restrictions to freedom of expression must comply with international norms. No compliance could lead to censorship,’ he said.

The Representative highlighted other key trends revealed in the survey. ‘Legislation in many countries does not recognize that freedom of expression and freedom of the media equally apply to Internet as a modern means of exercising these rights and in some of our states, ‘extremism’, terrorist propaganda, harmful content and hate speech are vaguely defined and may be widely interpreted to ban speech types that Internet users may not deem illegal,’ Mijatović said.

The study argues that filtering and blocking measures are in most cases incompatible with freedom of expression and the free flow of information, both of which are basic OSCE commitments.

It is also a concern that several countries allow for complete suspension of Internet services at times of war, in a state of emergency and in response to other security threats, added Mijatović.

OSCE warns of Europe-wide trend to restrict internet content – Monsters and Critics

Jul 8, 2011, 16:49 GMT

Vienna – More and more European governments are putting restrictions on internet use, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) said Friday, warning that this trend could weaken democratic rights.

The Vienna-based organization issued a study covering 46 of its 56 member states which found that filtering nd blocking of online content nearly always violates the principles of free speech and the free flow of information.

‘Too many governments are really trying to suppress and to restrict,’ the OSCE’s chief media freedom observer, Dunja Mijatovic, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The study highlighted that content blocking, mostly of child pornography, happens in most Western European countries under voluntary arrangements between authorities and service providers, rather than under well-defined laws.

However, such ad-hoc arrangements might be used to block other types of content, said study author Yaman Akdeniz, a professor at Istanbul Bilgi University.

‘Other countries might rely on the same tools to block access to political speech,’ he said.

This ‘domino effect’ of Western regulation being adopted by countries further east is already observable, Akdeniz said, citing Kazakhstan as well as Turkey, where authorities are banning some 15,000 websites.

The study showed that 20 mostly eastern European and central Asian countries prohibit so-called extreme speech on the internet, aiming to prevent criticism of the state.

Akdeniz also warned against measures adopted by France and planned in Britain, which deny any internet access for users who have been found to violate copyright rules.

‘The study wanted to highlight at an early stage that what the UK and France are doing is not necessarily right …, before other OSCE participating states start to use this,’ he said.

OSCE media freedom official to present report on Internet content regulation – Representative on Freedom of the Media

VIENNA, 6 July 2011 – Dunja Mijatović, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, will hold a news conference on Friday, 8 July, to present a new study on government efforts to regulate the Internet in the OSCE area.

The study, commissioned by Mijatović’s office, indicates that OSCE participating States are increasingly regulating content on the Internet. It argues that access to the Internet is a basic prerequisite for exercising the right to freedom of expression and the right to impart and receive information, and offers recommendations designed to maintain freedom of expression and the media on the Internet.

The OSCE 56 OSCE participating States created the Representative on Freedom of the Media institution in December 1997 to observe media freedom related developments in the OSCE region and to warn of violations of freedom of expression.

Journalists are invited to a news conference with the Representative and the author of the study, Yaman Akdeniz, a Professor of Law at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Faculty of Law, at 11 a.m. on Friday, 8 July, in room 201 of the Hofburg Congress Centre.

“

(Via .)

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, The Representative on Freedom of the Media (November 2010): Preliminary Report: Study of legal provisions and practices related to freedom of expression, the free flow of information and media pluralism on the Internet in the OSCE participating States.

This preliminary report has been commissioned by the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media and prepared by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz, Associate Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey.

It presents the first stage of research into the first comprehensive study of legal provisions and practices related to freedom of expression, the free flow of information and media pluralism on the Internet in the OSCE participating States. This preliminary report was prepared in view of the OSCE review conference and OSCE Astana Summit 2010. The final study is expected to be concluded in January 2011 and will be published in both, English and Russian language.

Executive Summary
Today, many OSCE participating States are reacting to the availability and dissemination of certain types of (illegal or unwanted) content through the Internet by trying to regulate or control its dissemination. There is particularly major concern about the availability of terrorist propaganda, racist content, sexually explicit content including child pornography, as well as content defined as hate speech on the Internet.

This OSCE-wide Internet content regulation study involves a comprehensive overview of existing international legal provisions and standards relating to media freedom and freedom of expression on the Internet, and the study will assess whether and how these are incorporated into national legislation, and applied by the OSCE participating States.

Furthermore, the final study will assess the compliance of applicable national Internet legislation and practices with existing OSCE media freedom commitments, Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (where applicable) and other relevant international standards (UN, CoE, etc.). For this purpose the study will involve the compilation of a comprehensive OSCE-wide legal matrix of all legal provisions related to freedom of the media, the free flow of information and media pluralism on the Internet. A survey questionnaire was prepared during the summer of 2010 and distributed to all OSCE participating States on 23 September 2010. Responses to the questionnaire were expected by 15 November, 2010. Depending on timely submissions, the study is expected to be concluded in January 2011.

This preliminary report aims to lay out the first findings of the OSCE Internet Regulation Study based 1) on the review and presentation of major international legal provisions related to the subject; 2) on the examination and assessment of the efficiency, the advantages and disadvantages of various international and national content regulation measures – particularly vis-à-vis fundamental rights of free expression and media freedom; and 3) by taking into account international as well as national academic and policy discussions on the matter. This report also includes preliminary conclusions which will be further developed based on the responses to be received from the OSCE participating States to the questionnaire.

This report argues that access-blocking measures show their inadequacy as an efficient and proportionate method to combat illegal Internet content, and raises concern about the possibility of using blocking measures or upstream filtering tools at state level to silence politically motivated speech on the Internet. The report shows that international organizations such as the Council of Europe and the European Union have recognized the inefficiency of blocking for fighting serious crimes. Furthermore, the report warns that blocking access to any Web 2.0 based applications and services such as YouTube, WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter, to mention a few, may have extreme side effects and strong implications on political expression.

Regarding the protection of children from accessing online content deemed to be harmful, the report states that participating States should encourage the application of end-user based filtering software on home computers, and in schools if their use is deemed necessary. However, the deployment of state level upstream filtering systems should be avoided at all costs.

In concluding, this preliminary report calls for the OSCE participating States to respect OSCE commitments and other international human rights principles when developing their Internet content related policies and regulations. The states’ response should be proportional, correspond to a “pressing social need”, and be in line with the requirements of democracy with regards to content based restrictions. Internet access should be regarded as a fundamental human right, and network neutrality should not only be respected but upheld by the OSCE participating States.

The Preliminary Report is available as a PDF file.