Strasbourg, 14/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Europe adopted a new Convention on Cybercrime last Thursday that countries will start signing in Budapest on 23 November. A protocol will soon follow, aiming to get rid of racist sites from the internet and define and ban messages of hate from IT networks, according to the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly. In a unanimously adopted recommendation, the deputies call on those drafting the Protocol to incorporate measures concerning "abusive hosting" (where cyber-racists have servers in other countries where legislation is less restrictive than in their own country). This would mean, for example, that a racist French site targeted at French surfers but hosted on a server in the United States would no longer be able to hide behind US legislation protecting the freedom of speech. The Assembly also recommended that European governments consider incorporating measures in the Protocol for decoding "terrorist messages".