Annual Report 1999

CHAPTER 4 - PUBLICATIONS, LECTURES AND OTHER ACTIVITIES IN 1999

Lodewijk Asscher
Project researcher.

‘Een zorg voor de nieuwe Grondwetscommissie’, Mediaforum 1999-2, p. 41.

Guest commentary following the appointment of a committee which will advise on constitutional rights in the digital age. Warning against including a duty to ensure pluriformity in the Constitution.

‘Subsidie voor olifantenpoep. Of: hoe vrij is de kunst?’, Mediaforum 1999-13, pp. 333-334.

In New York, Mayor Giuliani tried to influence museum policy with subsidies. By doing so he was acting contrary to the First Amendment. How would a case like this be decided in the Netherlands?

(with Wouter Hins, Bernt Hugenholtz, Erik Jurgens, Willem Korthals Altes, Frank Kuitenbrouwer and Aernout Nieuwenhuis), ‘Preadvies inzake een nieuwe tekst voor de artikelen 7 en 13 van de Grondwet’, Mediaforum 1999-11/12, Appendix pp. I-VIII.

[description, see Wouter Hins]

Constitutionele convergentie van pers, omroep en telecommunicatie, Deventer: Kluwer 1999 (ITeR series no. 26), 149 p.

This book reviews the extent of developments in information technology necessitate amendment of Articles 7 (freedom of expression) and 13 (confidentiality of communication). The bottlenecks in the current protection of the freedom of communication are listed and an outline is given regarding the position of the Constitution in the international legal order. Three scenarios provide options for an amendment of the Constitution which could lead to more adequate protection.

Annotations:

US Court of Appeals (9th C) 6 May 1999, Bernstein v. United States, Mediaforum 1999-10, pp. 279-286.

This annotation analyses how the American court came to the conclusion that encryption programs – under certain circumstances – are a protected form of expression under the First Amendment. A comparison is made with constitutional protection of software in the Netherlands.

Positions:

- secretary of the Association for Media and Communications Law (VMC);
- secretary of the VMC study committee on the revision of Articles 7 and 13 of the Constitution.