Contact:
Mike Leidig
Phone: ++43-1-81140-319
E-Mail: editor@newsfox.com
| Pressbox | 
|
Vienna, Austria (pte037/24.01.2003/10:51) - The USA's controversial Patriot Act has been slammed as an "intimidating" violation of the right to freedom of expression by the OSCE in Vienna yesterday (Thu). The organisation's representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve, said monitoring book-buyers and readers by investigating library records, newspaper subscriptions and bookstore receipts under the Act was a worrying misuse of power.
Duve said: "Governmental prerogatives are being used in a way that might intimidate citizens from exercising their right to freedom of expression. It might be that the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) have not recognized the significance of their steps for freedom of ideas. I trust that the freedom of expression will not be allowed to be jeopardized in the country we consider the cradle of that freedom." He added that an investigation into similar laws in some European countries should be carried out as a matter of urgency. http://www.osce.org/
Foto: The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Freimut Duve
(end)
|
|
