http://www.cidh.oas.org/Comunicados/English/2010/122-10eng.htmIACHR CONCERNED ABOUT LAW INITIATIVES IN VENEZUELA THAT COULD UNDERMINE THE EFFECTIVE EXERCISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
PRESS RELEASE
N° 122/10
IACHR CONCERNED ABOUT LAW INITIATIVES IN VENEZUELA THAT COULD UNDERMINE THE EFFECTIVE EXERCISE OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Washington D.C., December 15, 2010 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and its Office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression express their concern regarding three draft laws that could be approved in the next few days in Venezuela: an Enabling Law, and bills that would modify the laws on Telecommunications and on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television.....
....The draft laws prohibit all media outlets from issuing messages that “incite or promote hatred”, “foment anxiety in the citizenry” or “ignore the authorities”, among other new prohibitions that are equally vague and ambiguous. In addition, they establish that Internet service providers should create mechanisms “that enable the restriction of (…) the dissemination” of these types of messages and they establish the liability of such companies for the expressions of third-parties.
By holding service providers responsible and extending the application of vague and ambiguous norms that have been questioned by the IACHR and the Office of the Special Rapporteur in their report Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela, the draft law targets freedom of expression on the Internet in an unprecedented fashion. The initiative includes ambiguous norms that sanction intermediaries for speech produced by third parties, based on assumptions that the law does not define, and without guaranteeing basic elements of due process. This would imply a serious restriction of the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights.....
Fill in the blank: When the US, China, Australia, and various EU countries do this sort of thing, it's bad.
If Venezuela were to do this, it would be < >.
Show your work....