The original article I'm making this point from is about a new censorship law, proposed in the EU Parliament. The point I want to raise is not about censorship (of porn or anything else), but rather the behavior of various politicians during the debate. To wit:
Around lunchtime on March 7, the email messages stopped coming into parliament, despite still being sent by individual activists — hand-typed, individual messages of concern. It turned out that some Members of European Parliament (ME Ps) — to this day, it remains unclear just who — had complained to technical staff about the amount of constituents seeking contact with their representative on a current issue, and succeeded in having technical staff classify the messages as spam, so they never got through.
It is also impossible for people to hold their politicians accountable on this issue, as the European Parliament did not use a "roll call vote," meaning there is no record of how individuals voted. The idea that a vote can be deliberately constructed in a way that prevents office-holder accountability is astounding.
So, I realize that this is Europe, which has quite different standards for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, when compared to the US. However, is there not still a requirement, whether in writing or merely unspoken expectation, that a political member has the duty to accept (reasonable, serious, non-spam) correspondance from their constituents when it comes to important legal measures like this? What penalties (if any) should be levied at the Parliament over this issue? What is the likely outcome of this on future hot-button political issues?
edited 27th Mar '13 3:21:13 PM by BlueNinja0
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw
The original article
I'm making this point from is about a new censorship law, proposed in the EU Parliament. The point I want to raise is not about censorship (of porn or anything else), but rather the behavior of various politicians during the debate. To wit:
It is also impossible for people to hold their politicians accountable on this issue, as the European Parliament did not use a "roll call vote," meaning there is no record of how individuals voted. The idea that a vote can be deliberately constructed in a way that prevents office-holder accountability is astounding.
edited 27th Mar '13 3:21:13 PM by BlueNinja0
That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw