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At the end of July 2006, the Office of the Hungarian Prime Minister released their legislative plans for the Autumn comprising the Act on classified information.

Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) have filed two requests inquiring about the details of the draft, but the PM’s Office refused to disclose anything about it.

Last time the Hungarian Government submitted the draft of a new Act on classified information (ACI) to the Parliament was in early December 2005 when the Parliament discussed it in an expedited procedure and completed its first reading within two weeks. Debate continued throughout January and the only obstacle was the government’s having not attached the Penal Code’s

In a ministerial meeting that took place in Riga on 12 June 2006, ministers from European countries have signed a declaration to diminish the gap in Internet usage for groups at risk of exclusion, but also to increase broadband coverage.

The Riga Ministerial Declaration was signed by ministers of 34 European countries from EU Member States, accession and candidate countries, and EFTA/EEA countries. The declaration shows the commitment of the countries to an "Internet for all" action plan that should allow the disadvantaged groups to access the Internet.

One of the conclusions of the meeting was the necessity to assess the need for legislative measures in the field of e-Accessibility, and to take into account accessibility requirements in the review of the electronic communications regulatory framework beginning in June 2006. Another

Following a fierce battle between an authority of the Italian State and private european online betting companies over their activity in Italy, a big number of betting websites are officialy blocked for Italian Internet users.

Everything began with the 2006 financial law (Law 266/2005) voted by the Parliament under the outgoing Berlusconi government. The law included four provisions - namely paragraph 535-58 of art.1 - which gave the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS or Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finances) the power to bring to the attention of: (a) providers of Internet services, or (b) providers of other data or telecommunication networks, or (c) entities that offer networks or telecommunication services in

The Parliament of Macedonia adopted the Law on Free Access to Information of Public Character in February 2006. NGO activists made some effort to make some quality changes to the proposed law and as a result some essential recommendations were accepted and implemented in the law.

Although three months have past since the adoption of the law, the Commission for protection of the right for free access to information was established only last week. According to the law, the Commission should have been appointed by the Parliament of Macedonia a month after the law was passed. According to government officials, the Commission will become operational from September this year, when the implementation of the law itself must start. It means that citizens can refer to the Commission if they think that their right to have access to information of public

From 21 June to 23 June, Yale Law School hosted the first international "Access to Knowledge" (A2K) conference. Following two workshops on the same theme held in 2005 in Geneva and London, the aim of this conference was to "come up with a new analytic framework for analysing the possibly distortive effects of public policies relying exclusively on intellectual property rights” and to "support the adoption and development of alternative ways to foster greater access to knowledge in the digitally connected environment."

The Conference saw the participation of a large number of speakers and observers from numerous countries, distributed among a packed set of panels, ranging from larger, conceptual discussions on how political actions and academic discourses around A2K should be framed, to the

The EU report drafted by economists from Toulouse University and the Free University of Brussels on the economic and technical evolution of scientific publishing in Europe, published on 31 March 2006, recommends public access to scientific research funded by the European taxpayer.

The report proposes the development of a European policy that would allow researchers receiving EU funding to place copies of articles published in subscription journals on web-based archives that can be accessed by everyone for free. It also expressed the need to “specify standards that will insure that the archives are accessible, interoperable, and have cross-searching facilities. In addition, set up a general European archive for researchers with access to a subject-based or institutional archive.”

As a result of the agreement signed between the French ISPs and the Ministry of the Family on 16 November 2005, starting with 1 April 2006, most of the ISPs started providing a free of charge parental control software to their subscribers.

The agreement signed between ISPs and the French authorities has followed strong protests relayed in the media, after EDRi-member IRIS unveiled in September 2005 the intention of the government to impose by law "by default" filtering by ISPs for the purpose of parental control. After this, the intentions of the government have been downsized excluding " by default" parental control installed by the ISP. The current agreement still raises many concerns, especially since no real information is provided on the software and its criteria.

Starting with 1 April 2006 new subscribers will have the software included

Introduction to Openness and Access to Information

The Danish Human Rights Institute has launched in cooperation with a number of national and international partners a new Handbook: Introduction to Openness and Access to Information. The Handbook elaborates on four different areas of access to information: the public administration, Ombudsman and National Human Rights Institutions, the judiciary and NGOs. The book is meant to serve as a basis for debate and dialogue and as background material for training and education. Introduction to Openness and Access to Information is available at
http://www.humanrights.dk/upload/application/a99e42a1/accesstoinformat...