[cma-l] Fwd: CMFE Open Letter on net neutrality

Mon Feb 17 10:40:22 GMT 2014

Dear all

Please see below the letter sent from Community Media Forum Europe:

Dear all

The ITRE committee of the European Parliament will have a vote on net
neutrality the 24th
of february. As a neutral internet is essential for community media we
wrote an open
letter to the Members of the ITRE committee of the European Parliament.

If you would like to join the campaign you can write an email or fax to the
Members of the
ITRE committee of the European Parliament. You can find a list of the
members of the ITRE
committee here:
https://memopol.lqdn.fr/search/?q=is_active%3A1+committees%3AITRE

The website http://www.savetheinternet.eu/#act run by several European NGOs
gives an easy
interface to write, fax or call the MEPs an further information on the
topic.

Here is what we wrote:

Honorable Member of the European Parliament,

Nowadays, access to the Internet is a necessary condition for independent
media coverage.
For Community Media the internet is essential for editorial research and
communication ,
program sharing  with other radio stations, program distribution as podcast
or streaming
technologies.

With  its declaration of 11.02.2009 "on the role of media in promoting  of
social cohesion
and intercultural dialogue " [1 ] the Committee of  Ministers of the
Council of Europe
recognizes   Community Media as " independent media in addition to the
public and
private-commercial media ". They  meet " many needs and functions that can
cover neither
commercial  nor public media." They " contribute to media  diversity" and "
promote
information access for underrepresented or  marginalized persons, their
possibilities of
expression and their participation in decision-making . "

In order to make this contribution, access to an unresticted Internet is
essential.
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe also declares: Users
should have the
greatest possible access to Internet-based content, applications and
services of their
choice, whether or not they are offered free of charge, using suitable
devices of their
choice.  Such a general principle, commonly referred to as network
neutrality, should
apply irrespective of the infrastructure or the network used for Internet
connectivity.
Access to infrastructure is a prerequisite for the realisation of this [2].

Therefore, we follow the debate on the draft law of the European Commission
on net
neutrality with great concern.  The Commission's draft was originally made
to secure
network neutrality , but as it looks right now it could lead to the
opposite. Various human
rights organizations have criticized the proposal, especially regarding the
following points:

1. Introduction of a two-class Internet by " special services " ( Article
2.15 and Article 19)

The regulation should define which services use the open Internet and what
"premium" or
"special services" are. The  Commission's draft text is unfortunately
poorly defined and
would  allow telecommunication companies to interpret every service as a
 "special
service" and thus charge extra for those service.  This regulation could
therefore lead to
a two -class Internet, where large corporations could buy a fast lane on
the Internet.

2. Internet blocking and censorship by the Internet service provider
(Article 23.5.a )

The Commision sees procedures the provider may voluntarily take to prevent
" severe
crimes" as "reasonable traffic management". The internet providers would
then have the
ability to block content on the Internet without a court order. They could
decide which
content may be communicated and received and which could be assistance to
"severe crime".
The establishment of carriers to become controllers of free social
 communication
contradicts any rule of law principle, and is a completely  unacceptable
robbery of EU
citizens' elementary rights.

3. Misleading "liberties " instead of rights (Article 23)

The Regulation is talking of " freedoms" of users whereas it should be
"rights". Consumers
have already the "freedom"  to choose between many confusing tariffs of
Internet service
providers. The Commission was very generous and intends to reguarise this
 - a right to
unrestricted Internet access is unfortunately not mentioned in the draft .

We as Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE) join this criticism and reject
the definition of
any premium or special services, as  well as Internet blocking and
censorship by the
Internet provider and  the lack of a right to unrestricted Internet access
for all users.

We ask you  therefore to engage in the ITRE Committee for a neutral
Internet .
Yours sincerly, Friederike Maier for the board  of CMFE
Links:
[1] https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1409919
[2]
https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/com.instranet.InstraServlet?Index=no&command=com.instranet.CmdBlobGet&InstranetImage=1894969&SecMode=1&DocId=1631194&Usage=2

--

============================================================================
Friederike Maier
mailto: friederike.maier at cmfe.eu  website: http://www.cmfe.eu
============================================================================
CMFE
COMMUNITY MEDIA FORUM EUROPE
is a network of policy experts, organizations and federations, which aim to
support the
role of
Community Media in Europe.
CMFE is registered in Belgium as an International NGO, business n.0822992342

CMFE is supported by the EU under the Europe for Citizens Program 2013.
CMFE also kindly accepts donations: see our PayPal donation button at
www.cmfe.eu
==============================================================================
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Members_cmfe at lists.freie-radios.at
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-- 
Jaqui Devereux
Director
Community Media Association

<http://goog_1822693262>http://www.commedia.org.uk/
http://twitter.com/community_media
https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation

t: +44 (0)114 279 5219

Canstream Internet Radio & Video
http://www.canstream.co.uk/
<https://www.facebook.com/CommunityMediaAssociation>
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