(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has objected to an amendment to a new “telecoms package” bill that was scheduled to be examined by the French National Assembly on 10 February 2004. The new bill deals with electronic communications and broadcast services. The government has signalled its urgency, and the law is expected to be passed after only […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has objected to an amendment to a new “telecoms package” bill that was scheduled to be examined by the French National Assembly on 10 February 2004.
The new bill deals with electronic communications and broadcast services. The government has signalled its urgency, and the law is expected to be passed after only one reading in the Senate and National Assembly.
Member of Parliament (MP) Patrice Martin-Lalande was planning to propose an amendment on the responsibilities of Internet service providers (ISPs), an issue that is already under consideration in the Law on confidence in the digital economy (Loi sur la confiance dans l’économie numérique, LEN).
RSF is opposed to the “telecoms package” law amendment introduced by Martin-Lalande. “It is a step in the right direction, in that it removes systematic surveillance of content, which was expected of hosts. But it does not go far enough because it confirms the obligation of ISPs to filter out content that is considered illegal, thus opening the door to abusive censorship of the Internet,” the organisation said.
“It only resolves one of the problems raised by the LEN and is therefore not an acceptable solution,” RSF said, adding that since the object of the amendment was already under discussion in the framework of the LEN, it should not be voted on hastily under an emergency procedure.
The amendment in question picks up in its entirety a text already put before the National Assembly at the first reading of the LEN, at which point it was rejected by a majority of MPs. The text is designed to amend a part of the LEN (Chapter II, Article 2, paragraph I, point 7) that requires ISPs to monitor all the websites they host and block illegal content. It also confirms another LEN measure (Chapter II, Article 2, paragraph I, point 8), which provides for the filtering of web pages hosted abroad following a court order to that effect. RSF opposes this type of filtering because it cannot be applied selectively. Blocking illegal websites can often also prevent access to other perfectly legal electronic publications due to technical constraints.
For more information on the LEN, see: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=9011
