What applies offline is also valid online - an argument often used against internet communication by legislators - has been turned around to underline fundamental rights on the internet in a new resolution of the Council of Europe.
The Council of Europe is a Strasbourg, France-based body of 47 members including the member states of the European Union.
In a lengthy resolution that lays out the media and internet work of the Council for the next five years, ministers for media and new communication gathered in Reykjavik, Iceland on 29 May underlined that “fundamental rights and Council of Europe standards and values apply to online information and communication services as much as they do to the offline world.”
The ministers called for universal access to the internet should be explored as part of member state’s provision of public services. Barriers to internet access in individual countries, in cross-border flows or from possible problems in critical internet infrastructure systems, are on the future agenda of the Council.
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