US Human Rights report comments on judgment against Compuserve
Washington, February 26. (AFP) - The controversial internet judgment of the Munich Municipal Court against the Compuserve internet provider has found a place in the US State Department's human rights report. In the Germany chapter of the report on Friday, the case became an example for the "yet unclear" effect cited which the German multimedia law could have for internet providers. Compuserve manager Felix Somm was sentenced to two years imprisonment suspended and received a 100,000 mark fine. Since then the state district attorney has filed against the judgment as a legal means of defense.
In the conflict between the German authorities and the Scientology organization, the US State Department presented its most well-balanced opinion yet. The report quotes in detail how Germany justifies the surveillance of the organization by the Constitution Security agency. The Bavarian Minister of Interior Guenther Beckstein (CSU) stated in Munich, nevertheless, that he regretted that the "German counter-measures" against Scientology had been taken up in the report, even though the organization itself was said to be responsible for "massive human rights violations." loew/saw
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