Is the Internet a basic human right?
Luckily, we don’t have to figure that one out. Because Judith Tizard, the Minister for Copyright, told us that Internet is a human right last night at a book launch.
She was launching Connecting the Clouds, about which I will blog more shortly, at the National Library here in Wellington. And she made this bold assertion in front of a crowd of perhaps 100 people including the Government CIO and the National Librarian.
Now, the thing about human rights is that you can’t, morally, deprive someone of them. So, we can rest assured the Government won’t be passing any legislation which cuts off people’s Internet access for doing something that, say, copyright holders object to.
That’s good news.
Also, article 19 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights says
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
My lay-interpretation is that “any media” includes the internet.
Tim
Comment by Tim McKenzie — 25 August 2008 @ 6:43 pm
The UNDHR is widely thought to have been drafted by Eleanor Roosevelt. I wonder what she would have made of all this?
Comment by colin — 30 August 2008 @ 9:04 am
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