Freedom not fear: what do we want?
Posted on Sep 21st by William in Faith & practice, IdealGov stuff, What needs doing?
Oh wow. The Freedom not fear demo coincides with the end of national Quaker week. And as of today half a dozen local Quakers are coming too. Here, for info, are the protesters’ demands (rather poorly translated from German…perhaps we have a look at that)
1. Cutback on surveillance
* abolish the blanket logging of our communications and locations (data retention)
* abolish the blanket collection of our biometric data as well as RFID passports
* abolish the blanket collection of genetic data
* abolish permanent CCTV camera surveillance and automatic detection techniques
* scrap funding for the development of new surveillance techniques
* no blanket registration of all air travellers (PNR data)
* no information exchange with the US and other states lacking effective data protection
* no secret searches of private computer systems, neither online nor offline
* no blanket surveillance and filtering of internet communications (EU Telecoms-Package)2. Evaluation of existing surveillance powers
We call for an independent review of all existing surveillance powers as to their effectiveness and harmful side-effects.
3. Moratorium for new surveillance powers
After the homeland armament of the past few years we demand an immediate hold to new homeland security laws that further restrict civil liberties.
4. Guaranteeing freedom of expression, dialogue and information on the Internet
* Ban the installation of filtering infrastructure on ISP networks.
* Only independent and impartial judges may request the removal of Internet content.
* Create a full right to quote multimedia, today indispensable to public debate in democracies.
* Protect common internet places of expression (participatory sites, forums, comments on blogs) today threatened by inadequate laws encouraging self-censorship (chilling effect)
