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Free Speech

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  • GILC Members Defend Free Expression at Internet Content Summit. From Munich, nineteen GILC members have released a statement opposing the Internet Content Rating Association's attempt to establish new international content rating standards. Such standards pose a threat to the long-term preservation of free speech on the Internet. A collection of essays and studies written by signatories of the statement, "Filters and Freedom: Free Speech Perspectives on Internet Content Controls", has been released in conjunction with the conference.

  • Upcoming Conference Seeks International Content Rating System. At a conference taking place in Munich on September 9-11, the Internet Content Rating Association, a new global consortium of corporations -- including AOL, Microsoft, IBM, British Telecom, and Bertelsmann -- will push towards a world-wide policy of self-rating [news article]. Concerns have been raised that content rating could threaten the freedom of expression, diversity of views, and accessibility that the Internet currently offers. For more information, refer to GILC resources on filtering and rating.

  • Groups Sue to Stop US Net Censorship Law. Free speech groups in the US filed suit on October 22 asking the court to strike down the Child Online Protection Act. 25 members of GILC wrote to President Clinton on October 21 asking him to not sign the law.

  • GILC Releases Report Finding Strong Protection for Free Expression on the Internet under International Human Rights Principles. On September 5, GILC released a report, "Regardless Of Frontiers: Protecting The Human Right to Freedom of Expression on the Global Internet," concluding that, given the Internet's uniquely open, global, decentralized and user-controlled nature, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights agreements should be read as offering especially strong protection to freedom of expression on-line. [es]

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