Matteo Mecacci participates in the OSCE internet freedom conference in Vienna.VIENNA,15 February 2013 – Several representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly participated in the OSCE internet freedom conference in Vienna on 14-15 February.

Matteo Mecacci (Italy), Chair of the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions, Margareta Cederfelt (Sweden), Roel Deseyn (Belgium), Linda Kristiansen (Denmark) as well as OSCE PA Special Representative Amb. Andreas Nothelle, Deputy Director of Administration Marc Carillet and other staff of the Vienna Liaison Office represented the Assembly at the event organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatović.

Entitled “Internet 2013: Shaping policies to advance media freedom”, the event gathered more than 250 key policymakers and experts from throughout the OSCE region and provided an opportunity to promote the work done by the OSCE PA, and parliamentarians in general, in the field of internet freedom.

Recommendations made at the conference will be made available to the audience in a user-friendly manner in the days to come. A wide range of subjects were discussed during the event, among others “freedom of expression – rights and responsibilities, hateful speech, protection of minors and the future of copyright online”.

From 1992 to 2008, numerous OSCE PA declarations on internet freedom have focused primarily on three topics: cyber crime, racism and children sexual exploitation. Since 2008, there has been a larger focus on freedom of expression online culminating with the 2011 resolution on Free Movement of Information and Knowledge. This resolution, adopted during the Belgrade Annual Session, “stresses the need for free access to information, especially through an Internet network easily accessible to all population groups”.