[Ivar Tallo is the Council of Europe member who was quoted in the two news reports I forwarded. (http://www.politechbot.com/p-01977.html) I thank him for this clarification. --Declan] ******* Date: Wed, 2 May 2001 21:48:17 +0200 (EET) From: Ivar Tallo <ivarat_private> To: <declanat_private> cc: <daveat_private> Subject: about the cybercrime convention Hi there, the exchange that you are having about curbing freedom of speech in internet is unfortunately based on the impression that somebody from international newsagencies got from Assembly's press-release. What happened in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was that the French delegation made amendments to my report (or opinion to be exact) where they demanded that ban of hate speech etc should be put into the text of the convention. I did not support it on various grounds which I can explain to you separately when you are interested. I had made a compromise proposal that these kinds of additional criminalizations should be put into separate additional protocol so, that the convention would not be put into controversy itself. For many deputies this compromise was not good enough and they tried to get support for it in various political fractions and in the legal affaris committee. They failed. They failed to get the support of the Assembly as well, though they lost the vote with a very narrow margin (2 votes). The fun part was that French delegation that usually ignores most of the work of the assembly was there with full power. They wanted sort of french version of internet based on their recent struggle with Yahoo. I argued that there can be no French or European internet and without the support of the USA the convention will go the way French Minitel has gone. The assembly supported my position as I already mentioned and I am very proud of the wise decision made by the Assembly. It is unfortunate that the news-item about it has not done justice to the intense and interesting discussions taking place, with best regards, yours truly "Estonian Socialist" Ivar Tallo, in reality just a member of Estonian Social Democratic Party Moodukad and member of Estonian Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe P.S. if you are interested, I'll be happy to forward you my speeches in the Council and in the hearing that I organized in Paris in the beginning of March. bzw. one of the guest speakers I invited to this event was also Bruce McConnell (the head of McConnell International from your country). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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