Based on the expe­ri­ence with the atro­ci­ties of the Nazi regime, human rights in Ger­ma­ny are pro­tec­ted exten­si­ve­ly by the con­sti­tu­ti­on and the courts. Ger­ma­ny has rati­fied most inter­na­tio­nal human rights trea­ties. Reports from inde­pen­dent orga­niza­ti­ons such as Amnes­ty Inter­na­tio­nal cer­ti­fy a high level of com­pli­ance with human rights. Moni­to­ring com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and “cen­sor­ship” by govern­ment or courts are allo­wed only in a very rest­ric­ted­man­ner. Pri­va­cy and Data Pro­tec­tion is stron­gly pro­tec­ted by law.

Accor­ding to the “Repor­ters Wit­hout Bor­ders Press Free­dom Index”, Ger­ma­ny is curr­ent­ly ran­ked 18th(USA: 20th) out of 175 count­ries in the world in terms of press free­dom. But: the inter­net chal­lenges the Ger­man laws regar­ding pri­va­cy and the pos­si­bi­li­ty of natio­nal law enforce­ment. Due to poli­ti­cal sym­bo­lism and hel­p­less­ness, a ten­den­cy can be noted to limit the free­dom of inter­net more than would be con­side­red with regard to clas­sic media.

On the Blog­ger Tour 2011 – orga­ni­zed by the Fede­ral For­eign Office – I pre­sen­ted the ger­man legal sys­tem regar­ding free­dom of expres­si­on and free­dom of infor­ma­ti­on. A report about the April tour is here, and here – and the Pre­zi of my lec­tu­re is now available for download:

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