It’s an important day as the UN declared May 3 World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of the press and to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression.
This year it’s celebrated for the first time in the US with the theme “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers.” To celebrate the day, British newspaper The Guardian is holding its conference on activism 2012 in New York, a summit of industry pundits to discuss the role of the Internet and its associated technologies to change the world.
As the role of the Internet in modern day journalism is getting bigger and bigger, this year’s theme is very fitting. The powers that be are still wondering what hit them when SOPA created an outcry and ACTA got similar attention of the blogosphere in Europe.
+EuroTech wants to honor this day by drawing your attention to one of the dangers to Internet freedom and citizen journalism. The worldwide success of Occupy has created a media storm, and the country where it all started is Spain.
Under the proud name Los Indignados (the “indignant ones”), this protest movement was the forerunner for all the Occupy movements. The success of the movement has been huge. Estimates are that up to 20% of the total population has participated in the protest.
Massive and brutal use of police forces to stop the protests caused riots and new demonstrations in several large Spanish cities. The police has been firing rubber bullets into crowds in Barcelona.
After Spain got a new right wing government, the Spanish interior minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz proposed a new law. Every attempt to organize a “mass active or passive resistance against security forces” will be a penal offense.
He said these draconian measures were needed to toughen up punishment against street vandalism that “disturb public peace” and would include criminalizing the intent to organize violent demonstrations through “any means including the Internet.”
The Spanish Internet lit up immediately with mass tweets and hashtags like #soycriminal (“I’m a criminal”) and #holadictura (“Hello dictatorship”). So far without success. There is a common fear that the law will make it a penal offense to use social media for calls to protest.
The new law with a maximum of two years jail time is a serious attack on the freedom of expression on the Internet. If it was in force today, it would gravely restrict the discussions about the European summit. People wouldn’t be free to discuss planned demonstrations and protests.
Of course, it needs to be seen what the judges will rule and what will be considered a call to disturb public peace, but the space for uncensored citizen’s journalism is clearly at stake.
At the moment, Barcelona is a city under siege. With 8000 police officers and closed country borders, the city is prepared for the European Central Bank summit. Even the Schengen treaty is suspended for the course of the summit. Demonstrations are expected and the Internet is alive with discussions about the content and the circumstances of the summit and the planned protests.
How badly do you think a World Press Freedom Day is needed?
Author: Max Huijgen
Picture credit: http://noticias.es.msn.com/photoviewer.aspx?cp-documentid=161074892&page=7
More: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/04/11/espana/1334141729.html
