Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

EU to pursue thought crime (format-corrected repost)

Commentator | 02.01.2003 16:27

The Council of Europe has ruled that member states must pass law to criminalise not only the expression of certain views or publishing of certain insults on the internet, but even the "aiding and abetting" of someone else to do so. The thin end of a very wide wedge.

 
[ Note to Indymedia : This is a format-corrected reposting from yesterday - original was virtually unreadable. Please delete yesterdays version.]

The Council of Europe has ruled that member states must pass law to criminalise not only the expression of certain views or publishing of certain insults on the internet, but even the "aiding and abetting" of someone else to do so. The thin end of a very wide wedge. 

It is true that the views they will repress are views that most of us would think offensive, but I find the wording dangerously wide and an open invitation to governmental abuse, and prosecutions for what is in effect "thought crime".

We already have laws against incitement to racial hatred, of which I wholeheartedly approve, but this goes much much further. 

I am talking about the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime of The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. 
Overall details are here  and the full text of the Additional Protocol itself is /a> as an acrobat file. 

The protocol states (Art 6) that each member state must act to criminalise: 
"distributing or otherwise making available, through a computer system to the public, material which denies, grossly minimises, approves or justifies acts constituting genocide or crimes against humanity, as defined by international law and recognised as such by final and binding decisions of the International Military Tribunal, established by the London Agreement of 8 April 1945, or of any other international court established by relevant international instruments and whose jurisdiction is recognised by that Party."
and (Art 7): 
"Article 7 — Aiding and abetting 1. Each Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to establish as criminal offences under its domestic law, when committed intentionally and without right, aiding or abetting the commission of any of the offences established in accordance with this Protocol, with intent that such offence be committed."

Notice in particular, that while each state (Party) has the right in general to choose which international courts to trust for these purposes, there is one and only one court whose findings every state is compelled to support.
A court set up 57 years agoby the victors in the immediate aftermath of a long and bloody war. A court which was making decisions in the white heat of emotion, and with all the triumphalism and bias which one might expect of the victor. A court which treated as an equal participant, whose word was to be trusted, the Soviet Union. The same Soviet Union which we afterwards discovered was itself guilty of state-sponsored genocide, and of repeated show trials with totally invented evidence, fraudulent depositions and forged documents on a massive scale.

Why must this one court, from long ago, be singled out as the only one which is compulsory ? 
I think we can all see the hidden agenda. 

But turn nearer to the present. Kosovo for instance. A long history of two racial groups taking alternate turns at being first the perpetrator and then the victim of genocide. Will websites speaking of the suffering of one side be criminalised if they even hint at any justification in previous history? And websites which even carry a link to such sites (aiding and abetting).

And genuine historical reserch websites, which discuss cause and effect. Where is the line between identifying the possible causes of genocidal abuse, and justifying that abuse? Between investigating the historical accuracy of abuse reports and "grossly minimising" them ? Way too much scope for governmental abuse to suppress free speech. Remember, this moves it out of the domain of civil action, defamation etc. This makes it criminal, ie your government can imprison you.

And look what is missing. 
It is clear that no international cooperation can be compelled over prosecutions justifying genocide or human rights abuses until a suitable international court has so branded it. 
The political power to prevent such branding is in the hands of a few large nations. Many around the world believe that Israel is committing crimes against humanity in the West Bank. But there is no chance of getting any internationally significant court to verify this due to US veto power. 
So the power of the Convention in forcing States to cooperate in each others prosecutions will never be enforced against web-sites advocating, for instance, mass deportations of Palestinians. (I've seen them). 

My personal view is that true democracy rests on free speech. 
On the right of even the vilest of maniacs to have his say in public so long as he stops short at directly inciting violence against others. 
On the right to probe, investigate and argue over every and any viewpoint, historical event, political agenda, etc. 
The protection which a democracy has against hate-pages is the good sense of the majority of its people, who know what rubbish to ignore. 
It all comes back to the old saying "I may loathe what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I fear the people who rule us are not pleased with the power given to the ordinary people by the internet. We can expect steadily more repressive legislation, of which this is part. 

It is of course this same Convention which forces member states to criminalise the ISP who fails to cough up not just the information on your internet traffic, but the ACTUAL CONTENT OF YOUR MESSAGES. Read the main body of the convention. I don't think you'll be very happy. 

And no, you nitwits at www.honestreporting.com who are trying to suppress honest reporting, I am not an anti-semite. I am trying to defend free speech and democracy for my children. I am not interested in your racist games. I want you to have free speech too.
 
 

Commentator

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech