Tough decisions at the Legal Committee

By Anastasia Tsilia



Delegates at the Legal Committee (GA6)

At the suggestion of DR Congo, it was decided that the topic A, regarding the degree of Internet copyrights and censorship, would be given priority. After a lot of fruitful debate and discussion, two alliances were formed. The first one, which held the majority of delegations, was of the opinion that there should be censorship, mainly in order to cope with the problems of child pornography and other illegal actions, like piracy, which is a common concern on the Internet.

Very important delegations, such as France, Germany and the USA, supported this alliance.  Syria, who also supported this alliance, was attacked by many countries because it wanted to use censorship as a governmental weapon. Syria claimed they would use censorship to control political unrest in times of war.

Meanwhile, in the opposing alliance, countries like India stated that they wanted to recognize the basic right of the freedom of expression of ideas and opinions and as a result they could only support very mild censorship.

A lot of controversial opinions where heard about this topic and as a result this caused a fruitful debate which everyone wanted to extend. After a really long unmoderated caucus, two resolutions were finally given to the chair. The whole atmosphere was very positive and friendships seemed to be developing between delegates. Furthermore, everybody was really interested in the topic discussed and delegates participated as much as possible. Can’t wait to attend the discussion again!