Brussels, 19/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Union should set in place rules to control internet censorship by autocratic regimes, according to a resolution adopted on Wednesday 18 April on the annual human rights report 2010 (see EUROPE 10597). The Parliament wants these new rules to reinforce the responsibility of companies based in the EU which export tools that can be used to block websites and monitor mobile communications.
“There is a race between those harnessing new media to the purpose of liberation and those who seek to use it for repression”, said Richard Howitt (S&D, United Kingdom), referring to the suspension of Vodafone's services by request of the Mubarak regime, just a few weeks before the revolution in Egypt. The resolution calls on the European Commission to propose rules by 2013 to improve the monitoring of exports of products and services which can be used to censor or block websites and to monitor mobile communications. The Arab Spring has shown potential of the internet and social networking sites to exert the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the text stresses. The MEPs are calling for more support for the objective of promoting press freedom and protecting independent journalists and bloggers. They also call on the EU and its member states to cooperate more regularly with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to help it to arrest certain suspects, and on the European institutions to continue to bring pressure to bear on the member states to carry out full and transparent investigations. Lastly, the resolution calls on the Council and the Commission to step up their efforts towards a universal ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to promote its implementation. It also calls on the European External Action Service to include a section on the rights of the child in the annual EU report on human rights. (IL/transl.fl)