It falls to the European Parliament to undo deeply damaging digital policies of the European Commission

In recent weeks, two reports from key Parliamentary committees have made recommendations on critical copyright legislation

March 20, 2017– In response to today’s release of Copyright Rapporteur Therese Comodini Cachia MEP’s draft report on updates to the European Union Copyright Directive, OpenMedia’s Digital Rights Specialist Ruth Coustick-Deal said:

“This is an issue of fundamental rights, and once again we see the need for the European Parliament to step in and undo the damage being inflicted by the European Commission. Cachia’s proposed updates to copyright legislation are a strong step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to ensure the ability of all Europeans to access information online and express themselves freely.”

Coustick Deal continued: “We’ve come a long way from the positive, forward-looking proposals tabled by former rapporteur Julia Reda MEP in last year’s copyright report. To truly ensure the rights of individuals are protected, provisions for a link tax and censorship machines must be entirely removed from copyright proposals currently on the table, and the European Parliament should focus its efforts on advancing common sense protections and get back on track with the real aims of this process, making copyright rules that work for the 21st Century.”

OpenMedia has helped rally over 128,000 people as part of the Save The Link campaign. Citizens across the EU can send a message to their MEP about the Commission’s link tax and content censorship proposals at act1.openmedia.org/SaveTheLink