[Forwarded with permission, first few grafs deleted by request. --Declan] Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 10:40:22 -0800 (PST) From: Margarita Lacabe <marga@derechos.org> Subject: UN Conference [The lineup from the conference] -Debra Guzman, a long-time american human rights activist, gave a general appreciation of hate sites online. She said that it was very difficult to find them and unlikely that one would stumble on them. -Teresa Peters, another american from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development Information Computer and Communications Policy Committee talked about a study that her organization had made about regulating speech on the internet, and about the problems this lead to. I think the study is not public, and she did not go much beyond what the study concluded. I didn't take good notes on her speech, however :-( -Philip Reitinger, a prosecutor with the US DOJ, summarize US free speech legislation and made clear that hate web sites are protected under US law. He also addressed the likely constitutional protections of anonimity, but left open the question of whether the US could cooperate with other countries in investigating people who violate speech laws abroad. -Timothy Jenkins, who as far as I can tell is mostly a consultant and someone who is trying to get the black leadership interested in the internet, talked about how the real problem here was that internet access is disproportionatelly held by white (males?) in the US and Europe, and how the lack of access to computers might be a form of racial discrimination. He did not agree with censorship of web sites BUT he introduced the issue of anonimity, being for restricting anonimity so as to be able to tell who the authors of racist speech were (this was followed by a strong denunciation by the US delegate and yours truely) -ERic Lee, from the Commercial Internet eXchange, an association of ISPs talked about why ISPs shouldn't be held responsible for content and also gave a good explanation of how the internet works. -Agha Shahi, a member of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, gave a forceful opinion on how the Convention applies online and how countries must criminalize hate speech online. -Rudiger Dossow, from the Council of Europe, talked about what the Council has been thinking about the issue and warned about potential pitfalls. -Maya Sooka, from Sangonet in SA, questioned the code of conduct idea that had been proposed several times - Anthony M. Rutkowski, now from Magic, talked about how the internet works, how impossible it is to regulate it, and how it should not be regulated differently from other media. At some point there was a presentation by the Simon Wiesenthal center on hate sites online, and another by the ITU, which I did not quite understand, about how hundreds of satellites are being launched. In addition to the experts, the conference had representatives from some UN and Int'l bodies, including the department of public information, the OHCHR, the ITU, the Internet Society and others who remained mostly silent. There were representatives from several countries, including the US, Sweeden, Germany, France and Cuba. Most representatives were embassy people, but those from Sweeden, france and germany were from different ministries in their countries. These three representatives who were among the most vocal in the conference seemed to be the only ones who were actually aware of the legal issues concerned, as well as to what the internet is :-) The NGOs were badly represented, there was no one from the groups that watch hate speech online (except for the brief appearance of the guy from the simon Wiesenthal center). In addition to the three of us, article 19 - the free speech organization - in England was represented, there was a guy from the World Jewish Conference who was there half the time, a couple of people from this organization for adult education, a professor from the Universtiy of Geneva who spoke a few times, and some assorted people from Geneva based groups who were mostly silent. There was also a guy from Indigienous World Association who missunderstood pretty much everything said, but was very passionate. (to be continued) Margarita Lacabe - Derechos - marga@derechos.org - http://www.derechos.org ____________________________________________________________________________ The governors as well as the governed are bound by the law and by the established system of making, changing and interpreting the law AKA The Rule of Law