Читать книгу The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics - Группа авторов - Страница 48

The process through which communication rights have been recognized within the UN has evolved according to the changes experienced in contemporary societies and in international law. Its first stage began with Article 19 of the UDHR as a paradigm; despite its many shortcomings, that Article served as a trigger for raising awareness of the importance of these freedoms. Its pioneering recognition of the two-fold nature (information and opinion) of communication activity has endured until today. The use of international law’s classic instruments in the UN continued with the promulgation of the ICCPR, which through its optional protocols, incorporated the possibility of the UN Human Rights Committee’s creation of a certain amount of “case law” on the rights recognized in that document, with special emphasis laid on the communication rights set forth in the covenant’s Article 19. But a changing international context and societies in which technology is omnipresent requires new ways of approaching communication’s regulatory challenges. In this regard, the UN has opted for the use of “soft law” initiatives arising from its moral authority in order to influence national legislation, replacing the conventional models used to date, as the various examples described in this chapter show.