The EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights published their 2003 report. The network has been set up by the European Commission, upon request of the European Parliament. Since 2002, it monitors the situation of fundamental rights in the Member States and in the Union, on the basis of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The report covers a wide range of fundamental rights and raises for example concern about the use of biometric identifiers and the transmission of Passenger Names Records. It also criticises control over state media in Italy and Poland. The section on freedom of expression however, lacks reference to the internet and notice-and-takedown procedures.

Report on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2003 (01.2004)
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/cfr_cdf/doc/report_eu_2003_...

Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) reports the arrest of 2 online journalists in the Ukraine. In two separate incidents, Ukrainian authorities detained the online journalists Kostyantyn Sydorenko and Olexandre Pomytkin. Sydorenko is an online journalist who had been reporting on a mayoral election in the western part of the country. When he went to a local police station to retrieve a lost camera, he was arrested, then ordered to spend five days in detention for 'resisting the security forces'; he remains in solitary confinement. Pomytkin, who works for the online newspaper Ukrayina kryminalna (Criminal Ukraine), was arrested not long after the publication of 'The Ukrainian Mafia', in which he exposes ties between criminal syndicates and Ukrainian police officers.

Questions remain as to whether Pomytkin and Sydorenko were actually detained in order to intimidate and deter them from investigating government corruption. Reporters Sans Frontieres objects to the treatment of the two men and calls for a closer examination of the circumstances behind their arrests: "It is all the more important to look into these cases because both journalists were investigating issues that are sensitive for the authorities."

In a study about notice and take down procedures, researchers from the Oxford university centre for socio-legal studies were shocked to find how easily internet providers take down perfectly legal content. As mystery-shoppers they opened up 2 websites in July and November 2003, one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom with a section of John Stuart Mills 'On Liberty', published in 1869 and hence freely useable in the public domain.

Their website opened with the words: "The text is freely available throughout the web." The first sentence from the essay was: "The time, it is to be hoped, is gone by when any defence would be necessary of the "liberty of the press" as one of the securities against corrupt or tyrannical government (…)."

The researchers sent a complaint about copyright infringement to both the ISPs, posing as the John Stuart Mill Heritage Foundation (which does not exist as research on the web suggests). The complaint was sent via a free email service, without providing a detailed address or other proof of identity.

Tomorrow, 6 May 2004, the French national assembly will have the final reading of the controversial digital economy law (Loi sur la confiance dans l'economie numerique, LEN), followed by a final reading in the Senate on 13 May 2004. This will conclude the French transposition process of the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC) and part of the Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications (2002/58/EC).

After the French Senate completed its second reading of the draft law on 8 April 2004, an inter-parliamentarian commission proposed a new text on 27 April 2004 to approximate the results of both the National Assembly and the Senate. The Senate and the commission have confirmed most of the very controversial provisions contained in the draft law (see EDRI-gram issue 2.1, 15 January 2004), but suppressed the provision obliging hosting providers to monitor the content of their customers, since this measure is explicitly forbidden by the E-Commerce Directive.

On 8 April the French Senate will vote about a controversial new law to translate the E-Commerce Directive (2000/31/EC). The law known as LEN ('Loi sur la confiance dans l'economie numerique'), has been heavily opposed by EDRI-member IRIS, Reporters without Borders, several trade unions, internet user groups and the association of internet providers for undermining the rights of internet users and introducing private justice by internet providers.

On 8 January the National Assembly adopted the draft-law, introducing a notice and take down procedure for internet content and a general obligation on hosting providers to monitor the content of their customers. Such a measure is explicitly forbidden by the E-Commerce Directive. Currently, hosting providers can only be held liable for illegal content they host if they don't comply with a judicial injunction to remove the content.

In France the owner of a website was convicted to pay a penalty of 450 Euro for publishing personal data without first registering with the Data Protection Authority, the CNIL. On 25 February the appeal-court of Lyon confirmed the earlier ruling, even though the judges decided to suspend payment of the penalty.

Remarkably the website-owner, Roger Gonnet, is a former member of Scientology who denounces the organisation as a cult and mentions names and other data about members on his website. One of these members complained. The first court ordered him to pay a penalty of 450 Euro, plus 450 Euro compensation for attorney costs and a symbolical 1 Euro compensation for general damages. The appeal-court rejected the extra compensation, because the plaintiff could not prove the damages.

Ms Brindusa Armanca, a journalist from the Public Romanian Television, was fired recently for an internet posting. She was accused of spreading negative opinions about the public broadcaster via a discussion list on the internet. The discussion list is FreeEx, a public online forum dedicated to journalists hosted by Yahoo. The list is part of a Freedom of Expression Project Romania, an initiative started in 1999 to defend freedom of speech in Romania, make government officials recognise the journalist status and generally raise awareness on the importance of freedom of speech and the frequent cases of its violation in Romania. In 2003 the program was financially supported by the Open Society Institute, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the International Federation of Journalists.

Ms Armanca announced she will appeal the decision in court.

The French provider RAS does not have to remove a website from the trade-union SUD-PTT. On 24 November a Paris court rejected the claim from 2 telemarketing companies that the website was both hurtful and defamatory. The rejection is technical; the companies should have chosen 1 single argument for their complaint.

The contested remarks state that one of the companies is being reigned by 'little bosses', a manager is described as being unable to distinguish between friendship and hierarchical relationships and a female president is disqualified as being perfectly aware of the situation, but not acting on it - as usual. (See EDRI-gram nr. 21, 5 November 2003)

The companies are ordered to pay 2.000 Euro to the trade union and 3.000 Euro to provider RAS. The judge explicitly authorised to put the remarks