Newswise — UM law professor Ron Rychlak, who traveled to France last week as part of a U.S. Department of Justice delegation examining the relationship between hate crimes and racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic speech on the Internet, is available for interviews. Explaining the United States' position, Rychlak told the more than 300 international delegates in attendance at the conference held by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, that regulating Internet speech is not an option in the United States, as it is in direct conflict with the First Amendment. "We fear censorship as much as we fear hate speech," Rychlak said. France, Germany and several other European countries have made it illegal to post hate sites on the Internet. Many of those sites, still targeted at European audiences, are moving to this country and finding shelter under the First Amendment. "We don't prosecute them," Rychlak said. "The [Europeans] would like us to take a tougher stance, but we can't." Talking Points:
* The U.S. signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights but did not endorse Article 19, which relates to the restrictions of free speech on the Internet.
* The U.S. also signed the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Ron Rychlak Bio: Rychlak is Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Mississippi School of Law, where he has been on faculty since 1987. He is an adviser to the Holy See's delegation to the United Nations and serves as a delegate at the U.N. meetings on the establishment of an International Criminal Court. He also recently was invited to collaborate with the King Prachadipok Institute project on the democratization of Thailand.
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