 On 18 June a two-day conference on Internet freedom organized by the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) started in Dublin, Damir Gainutdinov, a participant and legal analyst with the Agora Human Rights Association, who has prepared a paper about the situation in Russia, reports. Current OSCE Chairperson-in-office, vice-premier and minister of foreign affairs of Ireland, Eamon Gilmore. © Photo OSCE Current Chairperson-in-office of the OSCE, vice-premier and minister of foreign affairs of Ireland, Eamon Gilmore, declared at the conference: "The Internet and other networked technologies have provided people all over the world with a new platform for exercising their right to freedom of opinion and expression. It has become an indispensable tool for all citizens to seek, receive and impart information. We, in government, have an obligation to enable our citizens to access the Internet unhindered. Yet some governments are increasingly resorting to a variety of measures to restrict such freedoms, contrary to OSCE commitments and to international human rights law." Speakers at the OSCE conference include specialists from the European Union, the UN and the US State Department. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Tom Melia, in his speech pointed out that the Internet does not give rise to new rights, but the existing standards for freedom of expression are sufficient for its protection, and there is no necessity for additional standards to guarantee freedom of the Internet. |
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