Rapporteur Marielle De Sarnez (French, Liberal) of the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education has released her opinion on the proposal of the European Commission to create a new Recommendation on the Protection of Minors and Human Dignity. The report deals with two issues; more liability for ISPs and the introduction of a legal right to reply.
According to De Sarnez "(...)businesses cannot escape their responsibilities under the pretext that parental control is needed to be exercised and governments have a duty to introduce rules that will protect the weakest members of society." That's why 'the liability of access providers needs to be established.' All access providers must create an effective and easy-to-use filter system for children. "Efficient filter technologies exist for the Internet and mobile phones. They are expensive but can be used by the operators present in the market. All that is needed is the political and economic will to distribute them."
Besides, all site providers, producers or distributors must 'describe
proposed content/sites with an update every six months to make it easier
to classify sites using abbreviations common to all Member States.'
Apparently, De Sarnez is thinking of introducing a total ban on internet
publications, unless the proposed content has been classified in advance.
Hard to understand is also the call on governments to oblige 'creators and
producers to post warning banners on all search engines drawing attention
to possible dangers.' Warning! triple x content available
Finally, De Sarnez wants to introduce "a European toll-free number providing information on existing filter methods intended to offset the absence in some Member States of telephone hotlines". These hotlines could have their powers extended "to include the authority to report harmful sites which, even if it relies on subjective judgements, would make it possible to identify such sites so that legal proceedings against the authors could be brought in the future."
On the second issue, the right of reply, the rapporteur wants all EU governments to rapidly introduce a right of reply "to protect any legal or natural person from any information presenting inaccurate facts concerning that person and affecting his or her rights." Following the Recommendation from the Council of Europe on the Right of Reply (15.12.2004) quite literally, De Sarnez wants the right of reply to apply to any medium, defined as 'any means of communication for the periodic dissemination to the public of edited information, whether on-line or off-line, such as newspapers, periodicals, radio, television and web-based news services." The reply should get the same prominence as the contested information.
Draft report De Sarnez (14.03.2005)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/PR/547/547671/...
Proposal Commission: Recommendation on the Protection of Minors and Human Dignity
http://europa.eu.int/comm/avpolicy/legis/key_doc/legispdffiles/com04-3...
REC 2004 - 16 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (15.12.2004)
http://www.coe.int/T/E/Com/press/News/2004/rec(2004)16.asp
EDRI-gram: Council of Europe insists on right of reply (29.12.2005)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.25/reply