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19 June 2003: "The Council of Europe's "Right of Reply" proposal"

I doubt anybody has failed to pick up on this story by Declan McCullagh on CNET that the Council of Europe (not to be confused with the European Council) has come up with a recommendation regarding the "right of reply" in on-line media. Unfortunately, most of the online discussion has not been between proponents and opponents of the actual recommendation; the bulk of the discussion has focused on whether McCullagh overstates the potential damage to civil liberties this recommendation might cause, or whether McCullagh doesn't go far enough.
Maria Farrell at Gallowglass, in the entry "Right to reply", succinctly points out the flaws in the article. She also notes she's against the proposal; however, she's the first person I've seen who doesn't base that opinion on some slippery slope fallacy, and refrains from using words like "jackboot," "stormtrooper" and "bayonet-point."

Harry Hatchet sums up the Europhobia-inspired rhetoric in his entry "Eurosteria." I suspect both Harry and I (and likely quite a few others as well) haven't actually formulated an opinion on this recommendation, not in the least place because we've been too distracted attempting to counter the usual barrage of knee-jerk reactions. At the end of the day, it's all rather a storm in a teacup. As Maria Farrell notes, "the proposal is made as a recommendation only and is unlikely to get far."

Personally, I find it mildly mind-boggling how citizens of a country which has legislation like the DCMA and the PATRIOT Act (with "PATRIOT II" reportedly on the way) somehow feel justified in claiming that the entire continent of Europe "doesn't get" something about civil liberties which America in its entirety supposedly does.

Update: a not dissimilar observation from Iain "Mr. Happy" Coleman.

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