Miklos Haraszti, OSCE Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, delivered a public lecture today in Oxford concerning Freedom of Expression on the Internet.

Haraszti spoke at length about how most forms of government control over the internet suffer from problems of under or over-inclusiveness, and how they generally fail European principles related to Freedom of Expression.

So, I asked him how he felt about the new media elements of Viviane Reding’s proposed Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS) or what was formerly called the Television Without Frontiers Directive (TVWF).

I don’t remember his exact response and he definitely did not bluntly state that the OSCE fully opposes the proposed directive, but Haraszti nevertheless expressed concern about both the vagueness and the freedom-limiting aspects of the proposed directive. His concerns resembled those I have heard from Ofcom.

So, neither the OSCE nor Ofcom are very sanguine about the AVMS Directive.