[eccr] Confidentiality of communications under threat

Confidentiality of communications under threat
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On 24 May 2002, Reporters Sans Frontieres called on members of the
European Parliament to vote against Article 15 of a proposed amendment
to the 1997 European Directive on the Protection of Telecommunications
Data and Information. The directive will be considered by the European
Parliament on May 29th.

"The trend towards abuse in the name of security since the September
11th 2001 attacks must not lead to laws reducing freedom of expression
for Europeans", said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to
European Parliament President Pat Cox.

"[The passage of] such an article would jeopardise the right of
journalists not to reveal their sources, as well as the confidentiality
of professional and personal communications, by allowing unrestricted
interception, storage and inspection of the content of phone calls,
faxes, e-mails and web navigation," added Mr Ménard.

Article 15 of the amendment, proposed by the Council of the European
Union (EU), would allow EU member-states to pass laws authorising the
government to keep data about people's telephone and Internet
communications and allow police, customs, immigration and intelligence
services to have access to the data.

Source: http://canada.ifex.org/alerts/view.html?id=10672 - IFEX Communique

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