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Sergey Pesterev / Wikimedia Commons

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Markus Trienke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Michael S Adler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stefan Krause, Germany, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

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Michele Failla

A Joint Statement on the Use of Surveillance Spyware in the EU and Beyond

Gobierno Espía Ojo, Gibrán Aquino, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

We took stance against the use of spyware in the EU and beyond. This pervasive technology poses significant threat to European fundamental values, such as democracy and rule of law, and risks severely infringing fundamental rights to privacy and data protection as well as freedom of expression. Alongside with other civil society and journalists’ organisations we called on the new EU Institutions and Member States to take swift action and ban the use of such a technology. We need to protect citizens, including Wikimedians, and their fundamental rights from undue interference and arbitrary behaviours. Here below you can read the statement with the specific calls for action.

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Wikimedia Foundation defeats gambling magnate’s lawsuit in Germany

Aerial image of Justizpalast in Munich, by Carsten Steger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Written by Phil Bradley-Schmieg and Jacob Rogers.

The Munich Regional Court acknowledged that the contested Wikipedia article (Tipico) contained relevant public information and was correctly sourced. This is very good news also for Wikimedia Europe, which closely followed the adoption of the anti-SLAPP Directive and will advocate for its ambitious and effective transposition in the different Member States.

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Anti-SLAPPs Directive: a step in the right direction. 

"Wikipedia censored", Author: Julo, License: CC-BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

 

The new legal tool only introduces minimum safeguards: it’s now up to Member States to transpose the new rules ensuring a comprehensive and meaningful protection for the victims of SLAPPs as well as freedom of expression and information.

Introduction

The European Parliament formally adopted, during the last February plenary session held in Strasbourg, the anti-SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) Directive, which it has also been referred to as Daphne’s law from the name of the Maltese journalist, Daphne Caurana Galizia, who was murdered in 2017. The adopted text is the result of the compromise that both Parliament and Council struck in November 2023, one year and half later the Commission published the proposal. Now, the text needs to be formally adopted by the Council, this will normally happen in March, and published in the Official Journal.

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Geo-Blocking & Audiovisual Content: Why we need to achieve a truly connected digital single market

An image depicting a Netflix account being blocked due to Geo Restrictions. Image by mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The European Parliament’s resolution offers the opportunity to clarify Wikimedia Europe’s position on the practice of geo-blocking and its impact on Wikipedia and its sister projects.


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European Media Freedom Act: some reflections from Wikimedia Europe

Press freedom 2023 according to Reporters Without Borders, author: NordNordWest, license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The European Media Freedom Act is a proposal for regulation put forward by the EU Commission in September 2022 aiming at safeguarding media freedom and pluralism in Europe. For Wikimedia it is relevant, because, on the one hand, it wants to regulate how online platforms moderate content by media service providers and, on the other, it introduces some general rules of media law, including the protection of journalists.

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