The report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression is a reminder that States have a duty to guarantee the free flow of information and ideas online, at a time when governments around the world increasingly seek to regulate the internet.

La Rue’s, left, report stresses that only online child pornography, incitement to genocide, hate speech and incitement to violence can be prohibited under international law.

It also makes clear, however, that even potentially reasonable restrictions on unlawful speech such as website blocking and filtering must be properly defined and proportionate in order to comply with human rights standards.

The Special Rapporteur further warned that the majority of the world’s population still lacks effective access to the internet. He recommended ways to make the internet more widely available, accessible and affordable to all without discrimination of any kind. He also made a number of recommendations on digital literacy and ICT skills training.

Frank La Rue noted that the potential of the Internet as a catalyst for change has also generated fear among those who prefer to maintain the status quo. However, in his view, such fear of change cannot justify monitoring, censoring, or blocking access to the Internet.

Internet – main tool for freedom of expression
“The internet has become the main tool for freedom of expression. Access to the internet and the free flow of information online must be guaranteed, says Dr Agnes Callamard.

Article 19 fully supports the Special Rapporteur’s report and recommendations, which broadly reflect the standards that Article 19 has been advocating for several years.

In particular, the report draws on the principles established in the Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and the internet, which was adopted by the four special mandates on freedom of expression in June 2011 and which Article 19 helped to draft.

Article 19 urges all States to fully implement the recommendations of the report as basic standards on internet freedom. Article 19 also encourages other NGOs and the media to support governments in these efforts by fully reporting on national laws and practices falling short of these standards.

Criticism for efforts to impose controls of internet
This spring the UN Special Rapporteur expressed “deep concern” about “increasingly sophisticated technologies to block content, monitor and identify activists and critics, criminalisation of legitimate expression, and adoption of restrictive legislation to justify measures,” as well as the lack of transparency surrounding such measures, particularly when they appear to be used to prevent the dissemination of information that is embarrassing to governments.

At the end of the May 2011 Article 19 expressed its concerns by apparent efforts by the G8, led by French President Nicholas Sarkozy, to impose tighter controls of the Internet.

During his address to the e-G8 Forum in Paris on 24 May 2011 – which included leaders of the world’s most powerful Internet companies – President Sarkozy asserted that there is a “collective responsibility” upon G8 states to forge a global consensus on rules relating to the Internet.

He told delegates at the meeting that the internet is not a parallel universe where legal and moral rules do not apply. Previously, he has repeatedly called for the development of a “civilized internet.”

Security not possible without respect for free internet
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović talking to law students on 3 October at George Washington University at the Global Internet Freedom and Human Rights Distinguished Speaker Series told that technological advances brought by the Internet made protecting free expression even more important and that governments worldwide must guarantee this right.

“There can be no security without freedom of expression and free media, and no freedom of expression and free media without security,” Mijatović said.

Mijatović talked about how, in the age of the Internet, governments, working with other governments around the world, must guarantee an individual’s freedom of expression. “This is a weighty charge, but a fundamentally important one for corporations and governments to responsibly address,” she said.

Dan Bross, the Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship for Microsoft, which sponsored the event, noted that a long-term security is not possible without respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

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