This website is an archive of the work of Marietje Schaake in the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019. Marietje can be reached at marietje.schaake@ep.europa.eu
As the Parliament’s Rapporteur for a report on ‘A Digital Freedom Strategy in EU foreign policy‘, and on ‘Press and Media Freedom in the World' Marietje Schaake hosted a panel to discuss changing concepts of lawmaking, morality and traditional responsiblities of governments and business in a globally connected world.
Panel discussion: Freedom of speech in a hyper connected world
Date: 9 October 2012
Location: European Parliament
Speakers
William E. Kennard, Ambassador of the United States to the EU (video);
Arif H. Oegroseno, Ambassador of Indonesia to the EU;
Prof. mr. dr. Mireille Hildebrandt, Chair of Smart Environments, Data Protection and the Rule of Law at the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (ICIS) at Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS), Vrije Universiteit Brussel;
Bill Echikson, Head of Free Expression Policy and PR, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Google;
Kustaw Bessems, journalist and editor of 'Vonk' at Dutch newspaper 'de Volkskrant';
Sameer Padania, Media Programma with Open Society Foundation London.
Rapid technological developments make people across the world hyper connected to each other, and to information. According to Mr Echikson (Google) over 2 billion citizens worldwide have access to the internet. On the one hand this creates opportunities for fostering development, human rights, trade and innovation. New technologies and the internet have proven powerful forces of change, innovation and civil empowerment. On the other hand, these changes pose threats and challenges, for example when it comes to censorship. How we have to deal with these changes and what role business, governments, civil society and individuals play within this new landscape remains unclear. This can be seen in the debate surrounding the Innocence of Muslims video: with the violent protests of extremists in reaction to the video, the question whether or not YouTube (Google) should take this video offline after political pressure has been fiercely debated.
Professor Hildebrandt poses the question whether the answer to this question is more legislation on the worldwide web, or should we keep the internet free of legislation and let it grow organically? As Sameer Padania points out, we are still figuring out how to align policies, norms and ethics within appropriate legislation. The Ambassador of Indonesia to the EU points us at digital responsibilities of governments; whereas the Ambassador of the United States stresses freedom of expression - also on the web - as a fundamental right that underpins every society. Editor Kustaw Bessems emphasises the importance of freedom of expression for the multi cultural, hyper connected world we live in nowadays "and yes, sometimes this conversation is rude and it will hurt your feelings".
Event summary videoFull event video
