<HTML><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=windows-1252"><META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="Microsoft Word 97"><TITLE>UN/ INFOSOC WORLD SUMMIT: THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY URGES UN TO WORK TOWARD AN OPEN AND ACCOUNTABLE INTERNET</TITLE></HEAD><BODY><TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=656><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"><B><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">UN/ INFOSOC WORLD SUMMIT: THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY URGES UN TO WORK TOWARD AN OPEN AND ACCOUNTABLE INTERNET. </P><FONT SIZE=1><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P></B></FONT><FONT SIZE=3><P ALIGN="RIGHT">Brussels, 4 June 2003</P></FONT><FONT SIZE=1><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P></FONT><FONT SIZE=3><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> The Transnational Radical Party (TRP) participates in the preparation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At the end of May the TRP presented a written contribution to the intersessional meeting that will finalize the document that will be discussed in Geneva at the end of the year (http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-s/md/03/wsispc3/c/S03-WSISPC3-C-0045!!PDF-E.pdf). The document draws the attention of UN delegate on the need to guarantee an open and free Internet in order to ensure security and democracy.</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> The main objective of the meeting, which will be held in Paris from 15 to 18 July 2003, will be the finalization of several working documents for the Draft Declaration of Principles and the Draft Action Plan, to be submitted for the approval of Heads of State attending the UN Summit in December 2003.</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> The Transnational Radical Party attaches great importance to the development of instruments that might improve the enjoyment of fundamental rights, and sees great potentials in the opportunity provided by the information society and the technological revolution as a powerful means for the respect of the rule of law and consequently for international peace and security. The TRP strongly believes that building a free and secure Information Society should go hand in hand with the development of an open and democratic Net. In its contribution, the TRP stresses also that through the opportunities provided by the technologies the digital as well as the democratic gap that characterizes entire regions of the world can be finally filled..</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P><B><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> Excerpts of the Recommendations prepared by the Transnational Radical Party for the Paris Intersessional meeting of the WSIS:</P></B></FONT><FONT SIZE=1><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P></FONT><I><FONT SIZE=2><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- The closure of websites and/or the surveillance and/or persecution of net-surfers and on-line activists should be considered a violation of Art. 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- International and national laws should be based on the principle of "technological neutrality". This principle should not be interpreted solely as requiring non-discrimination with regard to the use of one type of technology as opposed to another, but also as preventing a given activity from being criminalised merely because it involves the use of such a technology.</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- The obligation to regard as a criminal offence access "without right" to information systems should not be extended to activities of little or no consequence (which would not be punished if carried out "off line", i.e. without the use of new technologies) or to activities that could be regarded as a form of self-defence and/or affirmation of universal Human Rights directed against systems being used to the detriment of the norms contained in the ICCPR</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- The UN and its Member States should promote the adoption of a series of legislative measures to foster the right of every citizen to have access, at any moment and through a variety of means of communication including the Internet, to the proceedings of public institutions, as well as meetings of the elective and competent bodies, and to obtain public documents on and off line.</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- The information provided online must be presented not only in graphic form but also in textual mode, to enable people with sensory difficulties to use it.</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">- It should also be possible for all the information to be accessed also via user-friendly programs that are not dependent on proprietary software and whose use is not governed by the need for a license, patent or by any other commercial requirement. All information concerning citizens' civil and political rights should be provided free of charge. None of the information in possession of and/or produced by the public sector should be governed by any form of copyright that would impose an objective limit on its dissemination and re-use.</P></I></FONT><FONT SIZE=1><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></P></FONT><B><I><FONT SIZE=3><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">For further information:</P></B><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">Please contact, Gianluca Eramo, geramo@europarl.eu.int</P><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">www.radicalparty.org</P></I></FONT><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"></TD></TR></TABLE><P ALIGN="JUSTIFY"> </P></BODY></HTML>