Unit III

There grows serious concern about the growing number of laws and direc­tives directed towards the Internet in a wide range of countries. Hans Klien-steuber, Professor of Political Science at Hamburg University, points out that the tradition of censorship goes on in non-democratic states. In the United States, copyright law is already used to limit the free use of the Internet. He is also concerned about the European Copyright Directive in this regard.

OSCE Media Representative Freimut Duve stressed that the criminal exploitation of the Internet should not be tolerated and that parties re­sponsible for illegal content should be prosecuted while the infrastructure of the Internet itself should not suffer.

Mr. Duve also said that the future freedom of the Internet could be guaranteed only through the distribution channels, clear commitment to the freedom of expression, together with a better understanding of the Internet's underlying technical infrastructure.

The Amsterdam Recommendations on Freedom of the Media and the Internet, issued by the OSCE Representative, cover a broad range of guide­lines, with one dominating principle: no matter what technical means is used to channel the work of journalists to the public - television, radio, newspapers or the Internet - the basic constitutional value of freedom of the media must remain unchallenged. " This principle, which is older than most of today's media, is one that all modern European societies are committed to, " reads the preamble.

The Amsterdam Recommendations also make clear that " in a modern democratic and civil society, citizens themselves should make the decision on what they want to access on the Internet. The right to disseminate and to receive information is a basic human right. All mechanisms for filtering or blocking content are not acceptable."

News Media: the Power to Inform 251

GRAMMAR SUPPLEMENT!

THE PARTICIPLE

(verbal form with properties of a verb and an adjective)

FORMS